The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud, the first British athlete to sign up for the Enhanced Games, has accepted he risks sullying his reputation and admitted he is chiefly motivated by earning money in the twilight of his career.<\/p>\n
He told the BBC Today programme on Thursday: \u201cThere\u2019s a huge financial incentive with this and I would be lying if I said it didn\u2019t matter. It would take me 13 years of winning world championship titles just to earn what I can win at one competition at the Enhanced Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just such a different ballpark financially \u2013 it gives me the opportunity to earn that sort of money and setting myself up, my family and supporting my mum. These are opportunities as a 30-year-old I just can\u2019t pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proud provoked an angry reaction when he announced on Wednesday<\/a> that he was signing up for the Enhanced Games, which are due to take place next May and allow participants to take performance-enhancing substances. When asked if he was fearful it would cast a shadow over his achievements that included world and European freestyle championship victories and a silver medal at last year\u2019s Olympics in Paris, Proud was unrepentant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt definitely carries that risk,\u201dhe said. \u201cThis is one of the matters I really had to get my head around. The public perception of me isn\u2019t really that important \u2013 I don\u2019t see myself in the public eye too much so it\u2019s not the biggest issue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt came down to whether I could get the support of the 15 or 20 people that mean most to me in my life. If they could understand why I\u2019m making this decision and be supportive, then I\u2019m a happy man.\u201d<\/p>\n Proud added he felt he had reached the zenith of his career and the Enhanced Games made it possible for him to be rewarded at the end of his competitive time in the pool. \u201cI\u2019ve been to three Olympics and had some amazing opportunities and this is my chance to capitalise on a skill I\u2019ve spent the best part of 15 years developing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Proud has competed for Great Britain at three Olympics. Photograph: Allan McKenzie\/SWpix.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cThere are world records and Olympic golds I haven\u2019t quite got but that\u2019s asking a little too much of me now. I feel I\u2019m at the right point of my life where I can look back at my career and go on to something new.\u201dIn answer to a question about the effects taking banned substances could have on his body, Proud said: \u201cIt does carry a big risk and there\u2019s a huge stigma around these substances, but what I will say for sure is that there\u2019s no obligation for me to be taking anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my choice and the doctors will be giving me the best support in order for me to make the most informed decision. Everything is currently available to the public through prescription \u2013 there\u2019s nothing illegal and nothing that I would feel bad touching.\u201d<\/p>\n Aquatics GB and UK Sport have announced they will cease funding for Proud, who has told the Times<\/a> he lost \u201ctrust in the system\u201d after 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete<\/a> at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for the banned drug trimetazidine in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cComing up through the British system, we set such a good standard and I\u2019m very much a sucker for the rules,\u201d Proud said. \u201cI comply as best I can. But seeing that this can actually go on behind the scenes I was like: \u2018Well, what\u2019s the point?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI did then say to myself: \u2018It\u2019s easier for me just to completely ignore it and focus on myself.\u2019 But fast forward to the scandal with the Chinese swimmers. There\u2019s a lot of questions going round and the answers just aren\u2019t good enough to really regain trust in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud, the first British athlete to sign up for the Enhanced Games, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-417005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115188274537433070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}