Kyle Chalmers Said To Have Rejected $3.8m Offer From Doping-Friendly Games
If the rumours about the Aussie sprint king are correct, he'll be the toast of world swimming, and risk to other life-long ways of capitalising on his global victories will have been averted. World swim bosses prepare to respond to legal challenge from an alien trade working outside doping controls
Kyle Chalmers, the Australian sprint king and the first Dolphin to claim the Olympic 100m free crown since Mike Wenden in 1968 when he struck gold in 2016 ahead of silver medals in 2021 and 2024, is said to have rejected a US$3.8 million offer to jump ship to the doping-friendly Games.
The story, including the sum being circulated, has not been officially confirmed - by either side involved - but sources close to the sprint ace suggest that Chalmers was indeed approached with a "big" offer. And if that and any rejection is true, it will have dealt a blow to the Enhanced Games and its ability to recruit star names, especially among those still registered in the anti-doping pool.
Those few swimmers recruited so far had either already retired from the Olympic/World Aquatics realm or had decided to do so in order to leave the world of regular and obligatory anti-doping checks and whereabouts controls behind.
Whether the price or any million-plus recruitment approach and offer gets confirmed or not, Chalmers is likely to be the toast of world swimming if he has said 'no, thanks' to an offer of any level that would disqualify him from interaction in sport that requires all participants to be signed up members of organisations that are directly of through affiliation signatories to the WADA Code.
Turning down anything like $3.8m may seem like a big deal but for Chalmers, who is not a pure 50m man, risk to reputation and the opportunities in life that his success in clean sport all but guarantees, including lucrative endorsements and a variety of gigs for the rest of his life, the temptation to turn his back on all that he's signed up to in clean waters holds less power.
It's believed that Ben Proud, the British 50m swimmer, retired in order to join the enhanced project for much less than what reports speculate as the sum Chalmers was offered. No specific amounts have been confirmed for any recruitment deals and / or golden handshakes, but State of Swimming is also aware of an Olympic sprint medallist who is said to have been approached with an offer of 'just' $100,000.
That, too, we are told, has been, or will be, rejected, perhaps because no self-respecting swimmer of the calibre of those who can draw a crowd is likely to accept anything that feels like crumbs compared to the sums being banded about, including the known amount of $1m given to a Greek sprinter when he swam a time half a second faster than his best during his career in the test realm.
The time clocked was not the fastest enhanced swim ever: that belongs to the realm of fin swimming, which is much faster than any swim ever achieved with any form of suit and / or drugs capable off enhancing swimming performance.
Among considerations for any tempted to enhancement are the risk inherent in the nature and name of the project.
World Aquatics sources have confirmed that "litigation" is active after the enhanced project engaged lawyers, possibly to mount a challenge to the global swim regulator's new Bylaw 10.
Craig Lord
