Competing in the pro-doping Enhanced Games

Summary

Today in Focus — “Competing in the pro-doping Enhanced Games”

Date: May 21, 2026
Host: Nosheen Iqbal | Guests: Max McCusker (Olympic swimmer), Sean Ingle (Chief Sports Reporter, The Guardian)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the provocative world of the Enhanced Games—the world's first pro-doping sports competition where athletes are openly permitted and encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision. With athlete Max McCusker and Guardian reporter Sean Ingle, the discussion traverses athlete motivations, safety considerations, commercial ambitions, and the larger ethical and societal questions raised by this controversial sporting spectacle set in Las Vegas.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Max McCusker’s Journey: From Olympian to Enhanced Games Competitor

• Early career: Max’s dream was Olympic gold (“When you're a little kid is a win Olympic gold medal. As you get older, you start understanding how rare that is.” — Max McCusker, 01:00).
• Olympic experience: Missed Tokyo 2021 by fractions of a second, competed in Paris 2024, then retired due to lack of financial support (02:30).
• Return to sport: Recruited by an old teammate; intrigued by the Enhanced Games' premise and financial backing (03:15).

2. What are the Enhanced Games?

• Concept: A new event where performance-enhancing drug use is explicitly allowed and even encouraged, touted as a fusion of sporting excellence and cutting-edge science (03:58).
• Open about drug use: Organizers position the event as honest and transparent, countering the concealed, illegal doping they claim is widespread in other elite sports (05:22).
  • “Their starting point…is that they believe that lots of elite athletes take banned drugs already. They're just not caught.” — Sean Ingle, 05:22

3. Health, Safety, and Ethics of Doping

• Stance of Enhanced Games: Prescription-only drugs, not compulsory; everything is medically supervised.
• Risks highlighted: World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) points to significant dangers—heart attack, stroke, liver damage, etc., with both known and unknown long-term effects (06:19).
  • “Steroids…can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and liver damage. Human growth hormone…can trigger diabetes, heart problems and abnormal growth.” — Sean Ingle, 06:19
• McCusker’s perspective: Initially apprehensive, but reassured by medical support and individualized monitoring (08:56).
  • “All you hear is bad things….I brought these questions to the team and I got all of the questions answered by professional doctors…put my mind at ease within the first week.” — Max McCusker, 08:56

4. Training on Enhancements: Athlete Experience

• Physical transformation: Drastic reduction in body fat, gain in muscle mass, rapid recovery between training sessions.
  • “I went from 13% body fat to 6% in probably about two months…put on about 5kg of muscle.” — Max McCusker, 09:29
• Refusal to specify substances: Cites safety and responsibility, doesn’t want to encourage unsupervised imitation (10:03).

5. Incentives: Why Compete?

• Financial motivation: High salaries, significant prize money, appearance fees, and massive bonuses for breaking world records (11:57).
  • “Every athlete is getting a salary…between three and five times what they would get [normally]. Some talk about six-figure salaries…half a million dollar prize pool per race, $1M for world records.” — Sean Ingle, 11:57
• For McCusker: A combination of financial incentive and the desire to continue pursuing his sport after Olympic retirement (12:38, 13:25).

6. The Business Behind the Games

• Backers: Includes venture capitalist Aaron D’Souza (described as seeking a “superhumanity”) and investments from Peter Thiel—though organizers claim political neutrality (14:35, 15:53).
  • “We're building the Apollo mission for the 21st century…using science and technology to overcome our limits.” — Max McCusker quoting the Enhanced Games vision, 14:45
• Commercial ambition: Seen as a live experiment and a major platform for selling anti-aging and enhancement products to mass markets (15:53; 18:23).
  • “What Enhanced are doing I think are using Olympic athletes…to sell a dream.” — Sean Ingle, 18:23

7. Controversy, Criticism, and Societal Implications

• Sporting world response: Enhanced Games aims to “legitimize” enhancements, pitching itself as an alternative to traditional Olympic ideals.
• Public reaction: Organizers believe growing public curiosity and desire for spectacle will fuel success, even as critics abound (14:04, 17:12).
• Peer and public criticism: Some online backlash, but McCusker claims support from friends and some fellow athletes (22:18).
  • “From my point of view…if I could reassure [family and close friends], then I was happy doing it.” — Max McCusker, 22:23

8. Personal Reflection and the Future of Sport

• McCusker’s stance: Values his Olympic past, but sees “a place for both” traditional and enhanced sport.
  • “I'd be sad if there's not always a place for the Olympics…And there's a place for us.” — Max McCusker, 23:07
• No interest in returning: Realistic acceptance that a return to mainstream (clean) competitions is unlikely (24:01).
• On legacy of doping: Acknowledges the frustration of clean athletes dealing with systemic doping elsewhere; dislikes it but now participates openly in a new model (24:32).
• Excitement for the Games: Confidence in personal performance, recognition of the caliber of competition.
  • “I'm more confident that I'll do PBs in both races than I've ever been before.” — Max McCusker, 25:19

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “Our goal is not to break a world record. Our goal is actually to break all the world records.” — Max McCusker, 10:52
• “This isn't just sport, this isn't just athletes. It's a revolution and you can be a part of it.” — Max McCusker, 18:02
• “People want to see different things now…There's a lot more talk about the enhanced games in the past year than any other swim meet that's happened in the past 10 years.” — Max McCusker, 23:07
• “I know why I've been brought here. I know I've been brought here to perform on a product so we can sell more product. I understand it's a business.” — Max McCusker, 21:39

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Max’s Olympic background and retirement - 01:00–03:00
• Introduction to Enhanced Games concept - 03:15–05:15
• Doping risks and medical input - 06:19–07:50
• Athlete experiences and choices around enhancements - 08:56–10:52
• Financial incentives for athletes - 11:53–13:25
• Enhanced Games’ commercial and ideological backers - 14:35–17:12
• Public and industry criticism/responses - 14:04–18:23, 22:18–22:53
• Reflection on mainstream vs. enhanced sport - 23:07–24:01
• On clean sport & doping legacy – 24:25–24:32
• Closing thoughts on potential and anticipation – 25:19

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Conclusion

The Enhanced Games sit at the fraught intersection of performance, science, commerce, and philosophy. This candid episode lays bare the motivations of athletes like Max McCusker, the ambitions of the organizers, and the combustible debates threatening to reshape not just elite sport, but society’s relationship with performance enhancement. Whether it becomes a spectacle or a cautionary tale, the Enhanced Games are more than an event—they’re a symptom and symbol of a broader cultural shift.

Transcript

[Noshi Nikbal]

This is the Guardian. Today, why elite athletes are openly doping for the year's biggest sporting spectacle.

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[Max McCusker]

I was always talented in the water. I always had a natural affinity to water. And it's a place of peace. Right. When you put your head under the water, it's. There's no one's talking to you. It's just you and your thoughts or you just pushing yourself. So there's that part I always love. But my dream was always, like, when you're a little kid is a win Olympic gold medal. As you get older, you start understanding how rare that is. So it kind of shifted towards, you know, just making the Olympic games.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Meet Max McCusker. He's an elite swimmer with the shoulders to prove it. Max trained with military discipline in his childhood. Six to eight sessions a week, entering every competition going, and it paid off.

[Max McCusker]

All right, they're off now for the

[Sean Engel]

last final of day two here at the National Championships.

[Max McCusker]

Look at that breakout from McCusker.

[Noshi Nikbal]

He represented Ireland as a finalist in the European and World Championships.

[Max McCusker]

Three strokes to go, McCusker wins at 23:44. That's pretty slick. I missed the Tokyo 2021 Games by a couple of hundredths of a second, maybe.

[Noshi Nikbal]

But Max did make it to the Olympics. Paris 2024. You'd have thought this was just the beginning of a glorious career. An Olympian representing his country and being skilled at a level most of us can barely physically imagine.

[Max McCusker]

Pretty much straight after Paris Olympics, I retired due to, like, mainly financial reasons, but just had no. No support or funding from the governing body. So just decided that, you know what? I've made my childhood career dream and I had to go work in the corporate world for a bit.

[Noshi Nikbal]

At 24, Max thought his swimming career was done. A year later, he got a call. The Enhanced Games. A new era where sport meets spectacle, where records fall and traditions are rewritten. The world's best athletes fully unleashed, empowered by science.

[Max McCusker]

Yeah, so it was actually an old teammate who reached out to me, Shane Ryan, and was like, there's a spot for a butterfly swimmer. I've told them about you and I've told them that you might be interested.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Max was invited to compete in the Enhanced Games, the world's first sporting event where athletes aren't just openly taking drugs, they're being encouraged to do so.

[Max McCusker]

I always thought there was more for me. I always thought I was continuously improving. And then, yeah, kind of went from there. Started speaking with the team and the coach and then before you knew it, I was out on a plane to training camp.

[Noshi Nikbal]

This weekend, the first ever Enhanced Games will take place in Las Vegas. Where else? To show the world what it looks like to turn athletes into superhumans using a radical cocktail of drugs, peptides, supplements, so called longevity medicine, all of which you can conveniently buy from their website. From the Guardian, I'm Noshi Nikbal. Today in Focus, selling superhumans. Are the Enhanced Games looking to get us all hooked? Sean Engel, you're a chief sports reporter at the Guardian and you recently wrote about not getting your media pass for the Enhanced Games. Can you tell me how come?

[Sean Engel]

We all thought it'd be quite interesting to go along. We applied for accreditation and we got a reply back saying, sorry, no. I then got an email from the Enhanced Games people saying, had nothing to do with scrutiny from the Guardian. We don't care about that. It's because the Guardian's not big in America.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Right?

[Max McCusker]

Okay.

[Sean Engel]

I point out that actually we are one of the sort of bigger news media websites in America and the world without sort of, you know, picking up the trumpet and blowing it too loudly. And at the end of last week, they said, okay, you can actually go.

[Noshi Nikbal]

So the Enhanced Games, they're absolutely embracing that sports should be aligned with drug use and that it's fair game for everyone to be taking them.

[Sean Engel]

Their starting point, I guess, is that they believe that lots of elite athletes take banned drugs already. They're just not caught. So the aunts essentially say, look, we're honest here. We're being transparent. We're not hiding in the shadows. This is what the athletes are doing. Whereas more athletes than you think at Olympics and elsewhere are taking these drugs. They're just doing so secretly and illegally. When I speak to the World Anti Doping Agency, they would absolutely dismiss this. They would say, of course there are cheats out there that don't get caught, but it's not the majority. It's more than we'd like, obviously, but it's still better than free for all, which is what Enhanced Games are talking about.

[Noshi Nikbal]

So, Sean, curiously, the Enhanced Games say that it's not compulsory for athletes to take drugs to compete and that they're also not allowed to use illegal drugs and that it's prescription only. So in terms of the drugs we're talking about, what are the actual risks?

[Sean Engel]

I asked the World Anti Doping Agency this and their view is all drugs, when taken effective doses, carry risks. They pointed out steroids, for example, can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and liver damage. Human growth hormone can trigger diabetes, heart problems and a normal growth in organs and bones.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Oh, my God.

[Sean Engel]

Testosterone can lead to increased risk of hypertension, heart attack and blood clots, as well as infertility and testicular shrinkage. And they say there is plenty of published peer reviewed literature on this. I did speak to a couple of scientists at Birmingham University and they made another point that sometimes we don't see this stuff for 10, 20, 30 years afterwards. So you can feel absolutely great and, and have these benefits. And I don't think anyone is denying that if you take a bunch of testosterone, you will get stronger, you will probably feel better, but there will be side effects too.

[Noshi Nikbal]

And so what do Enhanced Games say about the safety and the side effects and the risk?

[Sean Engel]

Well, they will say that for the ones that the athletes are using on Sunday, these are all FDA approved. On the official Enhanced Games website, there are other drugs such as peptides, these new things that are coming through that aren't currently FDA approved. However, Enhancer, hoping that will change. And there is a currently a battle at the moment to get more of peptides through Congress. And there's every possibility that a lot of these peptides will be lifted a, approved in a year or two. But whether they are safe, we know the long term side effects. Why to say we don't know about that. And so because they haven't actually been adequately studied enough yet with the, with the rigor that you would get with approved medicines.

[Noshi Nikbal]

And Sean, are you aware of any stories, any cases where taking these kind of drugs has had a really negative bearing on an athlete?

[Sean Engel]

Well, you only have to go back to before the Iron Curtain. Look at the number of East German athletes, look at the number of Soviet athletes that broke records, did incredibly on things, and then years later they were diagnosed with all sorts of issues. Indeed, I think in 2005 in Germany, a number of East German athletes took the pharmaceutical company to core. What Enhance would say is those athletes were taking enormous doses, perhaps things weren't as developed back then and they would say, look, we are doing sort of smaller, safer doses. But Wilder would dispute that and say no amount of certain drugs can be safe.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Max, I wonder, was there any reservation on your part to compete in the Enhanced Games?

[Max McCusker]

For sure, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't. You know, when, when you first get the phone call, you have all these thoughts of, all right, well, I haven't done any of this my whole career. All you hear is bad things about, you know, enhancements or steroids. I had these questions, my family had these questions, I brought these questions to the team and I got all of the questions answered by professional doctors or the relevant team members from the enhanced team. And it was all put my mind at ease within the first week of conversations.

[Noshi Nikbal]

What was the training like in the United Arab Emirates? I know you've been there since January.

[Max McCusker]

For me, I've never trained so well so consistently in my whole life. I went from 13% body fat to 6% body fat and probably about two months. I've probably never been under 11% in my whole life. Or maybe when I was like a six year old kid, I was probably around that. At the same time I put on about 5kg of muscle. You're able to do things that I was never able to do when I wasn't enhanced. If I had a hard session on Monday, when it was time to go fast again on Wednesday, I was right where I needed to be.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Do you mind me asking, what is it that you're taking to have seen all these changes in your body?

[Max McCusker]

Yeah, so I don't really delve into what exactly I'm taking just for the reason that, let's say I'm going to give a name here. Jim sees me at May 24th and sees, oh, his physique looks a lot better. I'd like to get leaner like him. Or he just broke a record or swam a really fast time or won the event and he goes, oh, I'll go back on an interview and see what he took. You know, and he hasn't got the blood work done, he hasn't been through the testing or got its source from maybe the enhanced team or he's found it somewhere else. I don't want to say what I've been taking. So people use it in a similar way when they haven't done the testing for it and made sure it's safe for their physiology. The negative stigma that this organization gets is that, oh, they're just doing loads of steroids, they're just doing drugs, they're just doing all this. It's like if that were the case, I wouldn't feel Comfortable doing it. And I'm not promoting people going behind the scenes without doctors doing steroids and stuff like this. Right. That's not what we do at all. It's. Everything is extremely tested. Everything is measured to the T. Everything is prescribed based on your biomarkers, blood work, everything. Right. It's completely our choice. Right. It's completely our choice of I would like to do part of this or I'd like to do less of this or why am I doing this? Then from that there is extensive check ins. I just had a check in this morning. You know, and to be honest, obviously we're five days from the competition now. I can say that it's deviated from that at all. I feel the best I've ever felt in my life and I felt safe doing it. Our goal is not to break a world record. Our goal is actually to break all the world records.

[Noshi Nikbal]

What kind of incentives are the organizers offering athletes to compete?

[Sean Engel]

Every athlete is getting a salary. Enhanced games. Say that's between three and five times what they would get. Say if you competed for Team gb. I've seen some athletes talk about six figure salaries in US dollar terms. So that's significant amounts of money. They also get an appearance fee for racing as well as that for every race there is a half a million dollar prize pool with a winner receiving a quarter of a million dollars. And then if you break a world record in what they call the glamour events, which is the 50 meter freestyle swimming and 100 meter athletic sprint, you also would receive an extra $1 million.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Wow. Max, what was the main appeal for you?

[Max McCusker]

For me it was getting back into swimming. Right. Getting back into something that I loved. And you spend the best part of 15 years, maybe more of honing a skill. That's pretty specific. Right. And I can't go into the corporate world and start teaching people how to swim butterfly, you know, so it's. If someone gives you an opportunity, you know what you're going to be supported by for once and in every way and see what's the most potential you can get out of yourself in this sport. That was the biggest draw to me right off the bat. And then just also the interest in this science, obviously competing professionally for I guess six years, best part of six years clean, you know, getting drug tested every couple of weeks. Right. And never having a negative test. Right. So it was completely new to me.

[Noshi Nikbal]

And what is the potential for earning at these games?

[Max McCusker]

I'm competing in two events, so I guess the minimum if I come fourth in both events is a hundred thousand in only a couple of hour event or the maximum being 500,000. Right. If I win both events. So compare that to my swimming career before where, you know, maybe over the course of four years I maybe made ten grand. So it's like chalk and cheese for me.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Sean, this is the inaugural year, but the Games themselves have had so much press since they were first announced two years ago. Can you tell me about that and the kind of attention they've had?

[Sean Engel]

Clearly anything that disrupts what we know as traditional sport, this idea of fair competition, this idea of there are some drugs that you cannot take for either health reasons, for safety reasons, also just for reasons of unfairness, anything that does that is going to raise eyebrows. And the fact some of the people behind it, people from Silicon Valley throwing millions and millions of pounds at this also creates huge interest.

[Noshi Nikbal]

So Sean, can you tell me who is behind the Enhanced Games? Where did the idea come from?

[Sean Engel]

One of the key guys is an Australian tech investor called Aaron d'. Souza. He's talked about building a superhumanity through the Enhanced Games.

[Max McCusker]

We're building the Apollo mission for the 21st century. You know, what did the Apollo mission do? It showed us that we were so much more capable as a human species, right? We hit a new threshold going to the moon, using science and technology to overcome our limits. This is exactly what the Enhanced Games is about.

[Sean Engel]

He's an Australian law expert, Oxford University graduate, venture capitalist, tech entrepreneur. He claims that he will reimagine sport in the future, even though he admits that he isn't a big sports fan. In a recent Vanity Fair interview he said, I get invited to center Court, Wimbledon, box seat of football games. Everyone in the sports world wants to meet me and I'm really just not interested in sitting there. However, I think he sense a money making opportunity and hence here we are at the Enhanced Games. Behind all this is this idea that anti aging as a business is growing hugely everywhere, but particularly in the US and there'll be thousands, millions of people who perhaps be watching on Sunday thinking, oh, I'd like a body like that. And if you go to the Enhanced Games website, there are all sorts of things that you could buy that will make you, they say, go faster, stronger, etc. Etc.

[Noshi Nikbal]

There's a lot of other capital invested in the Enhanced Games, some of it coming from the billionaire Peter Thiel, who we featured a lot on Today in Focus. In the past he's had his fingers in a lot of pies. EBay, PayPal, Palantir, Amazon and now The Enhanced Games. What do you think the interest was for him?

[Sean Engel]

Well, I think he is very much into the whole longevity side of things as well. I have to say the Enhanced Games have pushed back on the whole Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. Who've both been involved, they say they are passive and small investors at the start and they needed to cede capital. When I was speaking to them, I flagged up the fact that the Times had essentially called them a MAGA experiment. And again they pushed back on on that and they said our only social experiment is to show the world how their lives can improve from safe clinical guided use of enhancements. So they'd say they're non political, they're not MAGA. Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr are only a sort of a small part of the investment group.

[Noshi Nikbal]

But Sean, in your sort of expertise on the sports beat and you look at who is pushing the biohacking longevity, advanced science end of things and then you look at the investors of the Enhanced Games and who's taking an interest, would you make a link between the games and the connection with maga?

[Sean Engel]

Yes and no. I think yes in the sense clearly look at some of the people behind it and they are to the right of American politics. But what did Michael Jordan once say, the famous basketball player? He said Republicans buy sneakers too. And I suspect if you went to the Enhanced Games people, they would say, look, Democrats could be a captive audience for this stuff. Their goal certainly is, is to make the things that you and I and perhaps many of our listeners would feel squeamish about at the moment. They Hope that in 5, 10, 15 years time you or I will think, well, you know, I'm in my 50s, 60s now. I haven't got the energy I once was. I'm waking up during the night, I will take something. It's no different than a sleeping tablet or it's no, you know, I will inject myself with testosterone. Suddenly I'm able to lift more than I've done in 20 years. That's what they want. When it comes to customers, they're not picky.

[Max McCusker]

This isn't just sport, this isn't just athletes. It's a revolution and you can be a part of it.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Together we are enhanced. Is it expected to be a commercial success? Because one wonders why so many investors have rushed to back something so controversial and untested.

[Sean Engel]

The $100 billion question. There are a bunch of companies in the longevity space at the moment and I think everyone expects this area to grow. What Enhanced are doing I think are using Olympic athletes, some of them world champions, some of the world record holders, to sell a dream. The other thing I think is worth flagging is there are already an awful lot of people, particularly in the US taking this stuff. A lot of it though is coming from China. A lot of it is unregulated, a lot of it. You not sure of the dose. What enhanced and other US Companies are trying to do is say look, when you buy this stuff for us, you could be sure if it says X amount of testosterone in this file, it will contain it. So they are trying to sort of make this area both legitimate but also publicly acceptable, if that makes sense. And I think they will succeed.

[Noshi Nikbal]

But it sounds like not only are they able to put on a huge spectacle, but they're conducting a live human science experiment while they're at it.

[Sean Engel]

Absolutely. They're spending $50 million on this one event. The killers are gonna play at the after show party. There will be, I'm sure, lots of celebs about that. It's going to be in Resorts world Las Vegas. They're throwing big bucks at this. They have got serious athletes here, decent people like Ben Proud, who I like a lot. Fred Curley, he's Olympic 100 meter silver medalist and bronze medalist. He's the world champion in 2022, 100 meters, one of the fastest men ever. So they've got serious people and they're using those athletes I think to raise the stock price and get lots of customers clicking on their website come come Sunday night.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Coming up, how does Max feel about being an advert for enhancements?

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[Noshi Nikbal]

podcasts, Max, obviously you notice changes in your body and I wonder how you feel about the organizers behind it also using this as something of an advert for the products that are being used. Right. And for mainstream audiences potentially being able to access this stuff.

[Max McCusker]

I'm not here to pretend that I'm a swimmer again. Like, I know why I've been brought here. I know I've been brought here to perform on a product so we can sell more product. I understand it's a business. It's not Max McCusker going for an Irish record again. It's how can we allow Max McCusker to do what he's best at to help sell a product, understand that that's what it is. And in terms of the product, you know, it's what we've been doing. Everything's above board and done properly. People don't have to buy the product. No one's being forced to use the product. But if you like what you see come May 24, then, yeah, it's a free country. You should be able to benefit from things that you want to. Want to undergo.

[Noshi Nikbal]

And have you faced criticism from your peers? And if so, how have you handled that?

[Max McCusker]

I haven't, to be honest. I get the old keyboard warrior every so often who give me some criticism from. From my point of view. And I've said it since day one. I wanted to make sure that I wanted to do it. I wanted to make sure that my family, my four family members were comfortable with me doing it, and a couple of friends. If everyone was on board and I could reassure them, then I was happy doing it. I've had teammates, people from sports organizations come to me secretly and be like, I actually really rate that.

[Noshi Nikbal]

And how do you think the two things will be seen now in the future in the world of sport? Having athletes taking enhancements, competing in these enhanced games? What's the sort of prestige compared to the Olympics or, you know, European Championships?

[Max McCusker]

I'd be sad if there's not always a place for the Olympics and European Championships and World Championships. Right. That's how I got here. I think they're separate. I think there's this place for that and there's a place for us. Do I think we're going to get more views? Yeah, I do think we're going to get more views. I think it's something new people are more interested in. There's a lot more talk about the enhanced games in the past year than any other swim meet that's happened in the past 10 years. So I think that that tells you a lot. Right. People want to see different Things now, you know, like, we just saw Jake Paul fight Anthony Joshua, like, a couple of months ago. You know, people. People are interested.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Did you enjoy that, though?

[Max McCusker]

I watched it. You know, I watched it. But what we're trying to do is even different from that. We're trying to do things that unenhanced people haven't done. It's a different sort of thing. It's. It's not swimming. It's a different aspect. Now.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Do you worry that it might make it difficult to ever return to mainstream tournaments? And is that even a goal?

[Max McCusker]

For me? No. Like, I don't see myself going to mainstream tournaments again. You know, to be honest with you, I'm not 100% sure if that's possible. I'm not someone who believes that clean sport or unenhanced sport should. Should be dirty. Like, I think it should be clean. I was always clean. My whole career. I never failed a drug test. I never would even dabble in it. And when I was doing it, I did everything by the book as I should have done it.

[Noshi Nikbal]

How did you feel when you'd hear about doping allegations? And did you ever compete against someone who later failed a drug test?

[Max McCusker]

It's a great question. If athletes told you they don't think about it, they'd be lying, because it's something that is in your head. Right. There was a documentary that came out years ago called Icarus. It's a. It's a cycling doping scandal from. I believe it was Russia. Right. And I couldn't bring myself to watch it because as an athlete, when you do know you're playing by the rules and you're checking your supplements and you're checking to make sure strictly that you're not doing anything. And then there's structural doping through other nations or individuals find ways to get through tests. It's a windup, you know, it's a complete slap in the face to people that are trying to do it by the book.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Max, how do you feel about your chances in the competition? Do you feel as excited about success in the Enhanced Games as you might have done for the Olympics or what have you?

[Max McCusker]

For me, training has been going the best it's ever been. Right. I'm more confident that I'll do PBS in both races that I'm competing in than I've ever been before in terms of my chances. In the 50 fly, I'm going against the ex world champion, Ben Proud, the current world record holder, Andre Govorov. Is my competition tough? Yeah, it's just as tough here as it would be on an Olympic stage. Am I an underdog and willing to go in and race these players? Yeah, for sure. I've got a lane, so I've got a chance.

[Noshi Nikbal]

Max, thank you so much for your time. Wish you the best and good luck.

[Max McCusker]

Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on.

[Noshi Nikbal]

That was Olympic swimmer Max McCusker and the Guardian's chief sports reporter, Sean Engel. You can read all of Shaun's coverage of the [e-mail] and that's it for today. This episode was presented by me, Noshi Nikbal. It was produced by Mae Robson, Tom Glasser and Iver Manley. Sound design was by Ross Burns. The executive producer was Elizabeth Kassin. We'll be back this afternoon with the latest. This is the Guardian.

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[Max McCusker]

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