“I could see more and more swimmers, athletes moving over to the Enhanced Games because it’s life-changing financial stability. It’s going to be life-changing,” Ryan Lochte said in a recent interview, directly defending an event built around large cash prizes and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Lochte, a 41-year-old, 12-time Olympic medalist who has been out of racing for over five years and recently accepted a role as an assistant coach at Missouri State, framed the payouts as a basic fairness issue for athletes. “I wish I was still swimming. It’s not just about taking enhancements. To be honest, it’s about the money, the prize money,” he said, repeating that the Games offer “life-changing financial stability.”
The figures Lochte cited make that plain: he highlighted that winners receive $250,000, that an athlete who breaks a world record can collect $1 million (a prize he noted is soon to rise to $2 million), and he singled out swimmers by name — saying Cody Miller “made $500,000 in two races” and that backstroker Hunter Armstrong won $250,000 while not taking enhancements.
Lochte contrasted those payouts with what he called the typical federation reward for Olympic gold. “When I was swimming, I was lucky enough to be paid by multiple sponsors and everything like that. But my swimming federation, getting a gold medal at the Olympics, you get 50 grand for a gold medal at the Olympics,” he said, adding that the math makes it hard for top athletes to support families on traditional rewards alone.
He went further than a money argument. Calling the Enhanced Games “a legitimate competition,” Lochte said he does not separate enhanced athletes from clean athletes: “I put enhanced athletes and clean athletes in the same category,” he said, and defended the idea that records exist to be broken. “If an enhancement person breaks a world record – hey, we have records because they’re meant to be broken. No matter if you’re taking supplements or not, they’re meant to be broken.”
Those comments sit against the event’s basic premise. The Enhanced Games explicitly allow and encourage athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs and are not controlled by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Organizers say participants who choose FDA-approved supplements must take them under medical supervision and pass screenings, but the event’s rules mark a deliberate departure from the sport’s usual anti-doping architecture.
Lochte’s remarks are notable for their bluntness and for the proximity of his new coaching role. He repeatedly tied the money back to athletes’ livelihoods — singling out Cody Miller as a friend he swam with in 2016 and praising Miller’s decision to compete. “He made $500,000 in two races. That is life-changing for him and his family. And I know why he did it, because he wanted to help his family out. My hat goes off to him,” Lochte said.
Still, his position creates friction. The Enhanced Games’ model depends on permitting enhancements; Lochte’s refusal to stigmatize athletes who use them places him at odds with long-standing anti-doping institutions and raises questions about how such a stance aligns with college athletics responsibilities.
Lochte has not raced in competitive pools for years and will begin working with Missouri State this season. How the university, its athletes and the broader swimming community reconcile an assistant coach publicly endorsing a league that encourages performance-enhancing drugs is an unresolved practical and reputational question. For now, Lochte’s endorsement makes one thing clear: the money on offer at the Enhanced Games is shifting the calculus for elite swimmers, and whether more athletes follow remains to be seen.
