Latest news with #performanceenhancingdrugs
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Aussie Olympic star James Magnussen reveals the surprising truth behind shocking photo taken after he bulked up by doing performance-enhancing drugs
Aussie swimmer James Magnussen has learned that performance-enhancing drugs are not the magic ticket to riches this year and has opened up on how his recent doping body transformation actually made him slower. Magnussen won silver in the 100-metre freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics and gold at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships before retiring from the 'clean' versions of the sport in 2019. His personal best of 47.10 seconds made him the fastest swimmer ever in a textile suit at the time. Now the former world champion has announced his plan to compete in the Enhanced Games, a controversial event that encourages performance-enhancing drugs, which are banned in traditional sport. Magnussen said he would use banned substances to attempt a 50-metre freestyle world record and was poised to achieve that result earlier this year - only to be upstaged by Greece 's Kristian Gkolomeev. The Aussie was lining up at an Enhanced Games meet in the United States to promote the upcoming event where $1million was on the line for anybody who could break the 50m world record. Gkolomeev clocked 20.89 seconds, boosted by banned substances and a non-Olympic-approved polyurethane suit - 0.02 seconds quicker than the supersuit world record set by Brazil's Cesar Cielo at the 2009 world championships. And The Missile, speaking on the Hello Sport podcast, was not happy about losing out on the $1million USD challenge he had been aiming for himself. 'Kristian cruises in after eight weeks of protocol. He gets up and bam, breaks the world record in the week that supposed to be about me breaking this world record,' Magnussen said. 'It was a really weird feeling, it was really mixed emotions. 'I love Kristian, he's a great guy. He's had a really tough life, lost both parents. That million dollars for him was him was completely life changing. It was more money that he'd ever made in his entire swimming career. 'So I was happy for him but that was meant to be me doing that. That was a hard moment.' The Aussie will have another chance to claim the title and the cash when he competes the first official Enhanced Games next year. But he admits there will be plenty of tweaking to both his training and doping regime before then. But the Aussie said that quickly went backwards as he became too top-heavy and recorded worse times in the pool than when he was not doping Images have emerged of Magnussen looking more like He-Man than the lean body that earned him the nickname The Missile before he retired from the sport six years ago. And he admits there had been issues with taking the performance-enhancing drugs to bulk up for the pool. 'I gained 10 pounds, or five kilos, in the first week, of lean muscle,' the Missile revealed. 'There was points during that process where my athleticism was through the roof. 'For the first seven weeks I was in the [United] States, I trained twice a day, every day. So 49 days straight, 98 sessions straight with no rest. 'The most relevant for swimming at certain periods were box squats. So you squat down to like a bench, sit on the bench and then stand up with the barbell. 'I was doing that with 500 pounds, which is about 230 kilos, just sets of three, bouncing like it was nothing. 'And so what we saw was performance tracked like this, really steeply. It plateued around that Christmas time, and then it started to decrease.' Magnussen admits he had bulked up too much when the photos were taken and will need to find balance to achieve his best result in the pool. 'I started getting too big, my nervous system's fried, I'm having trouble with that top end speed stuff, from that explosivity, and my metrics start trending down.
Al Arabiya
5 days ago
- Health
- Al Arabiya
‘Steroids are safer than alcohol': Enhanced Games founder vs former Olympic swimmer
It's being billed as the Olympics of the future. A juiced-up version of 'faster, higher, stronger.' The Enhanced Games doesn't just allow the use of performance enhancing drugs... it actively encourages it. Is it setting a dangerous precedent? And just because the drug use is out in the open - does that make it ok? It's up for debate here on Counterpoints with me, Melinda Nucifora. The pursuit of sporting glory is older than the ancient Olympics themselves. That drive, that desire to be 'the best'... But at what cost? Would you risk your health? What about your reputation? The Enhaned Games is flipping the traditional sporting narrative on its head. Instead of drug-taking ending your professional career - what if was just the beginning? The financial muscle behind next year's Enhanced Games want athletes - and viewers - to embrace what it's calling 'superhumanity'... A 'revolution in sport and science.' Strip away the marketing spin - and you're left with a celebration of drug-taking athletes breaking records which were set by clean sportspeople. Gold medals aren't won... they're earned. But at the Enhaned Games - who's earning them? The athlete, or the scientist? Our panel go head-to-head on Counterpoints to answer: Let the games begin. Guests:
CBC
27-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Owner of 2-time P.E.I. champion calls doping allegations against horse trainer 'nauseating'
Social Sharing The owner of the horse that won Atlantic Canada's most prestigious harness racing title in each of the past two years is speaking out against his former trainer, who's embroiled in a drug scandal. Mark Ford is no stranger to harness racing in Prince Edward Island and across North America. The U.S.-based horseman owns Covered Bridge, winner of the Gold Cup and Saucer finals in both 2023 and 2024. The horse's trainer, Jeff Gillis, was recently suspended from his work for 10 years by racing commissions in Ontario and Atlantic Canada after it was revealed he was part of an investigation into illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Ford told CBC News he's been a client of Gillis for many years, and he was "very upset and disappointed" to learn about his alleged activities. "There's no explaining any of the actions. I knew nothing about it," Ford said from his training facility in upstate New York on Tuesday. "I was dumbfounded and it puts me in a very embarrassing situation…. It's nauseating, it really is." Gillis was part of an investigation led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which saw 27 horse trainers, veterinarians and others being charged "with offences relating to the systematic shipment and administration of illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to racehorses competing across multiple jurisdictions." Based in the Guelph, Ont. area, Gillis is a successful trainer whose stables have won millions in purses over the years, according to his biography on the Woodbine website. But the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has said records show Gillis purchased illegal drugs, including "a substance held out to be an illegal, blood-boosting synthetic erythropoietin," from U.S.-based veterinarian Seth Fishman. Fishman was sentenced to 11 years in prison in July 2022 for making "untestable" performance enhancing drugs, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the southern district of New York said on its website. 'No monkey business' Ford said Tuesday that most people in the harness-racing community knew of the investigation into Fishman's dealings, but said he learned of Gillis's alleged involvement only when AGCO announced this week that it was issuing its suspension. "It's just sickening, and it's even more sickening when it hits this close to home," Ford said. The AGCO suspension states that any horses that were trained by Gillis would be ineligible to race, but can be sold or released to another trainer in good standing with the commission. Ford said he believes Covered Bridge would fall into that category, and stressed that the horse never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs following his two Gold Cup wins or at any other time. Despite the fact that Fishman's drugs are "untestable," Ford said elite horses like Covered Bridge wouldn't have been able to sustain racing on performance enhancers for as long as he did. "They raced every week at high-end levels for years. I mean, generally, juiced-up horses don't do that," he said.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Award-winning horse trainer suspended, fined in blood-doping case
A man who trained the winner of the last two Gold Cup and Saucer races in P.E.I. is facing a 10-year suspension from harness racing. Jeffrey Gillis was part of an FBI investigation that revealed he was buying performance-enhancing drugs and giving them to horses. CBC's Wayne Thibodeau has more.
CBC
26-05-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Award-winning horse trainer suspended, fined in blood-doping case
A man who trained the winner of the last two Gold Cup and Saucer races in P.E.I. is facing a 10-year suspension from harness racing. Jeffrey Gillis was part of an FBI investigation that revealed he was buying performance-enhancing drugs and giving them to horses. CBC's Wayne Thibodeau has more.
