Irish Olympic swimmer Shane Ryan has joined the Enhanced Video games, a multi-sport competitors that may enable athletes to make use of performance-enhancing substances with out being topic to drug assessments.
Ryan, who was born within the USA, competed in three successive Olympics Video games for Eire earlier than asserting his retirement from the game earlier this month.
“After a decade devoted to conventional competitors on the world’s highest stage, I am excited to dive into this subsequent chapter with the Enhanced Video games,” the 31-year-old mentioned on his determination.
Ryan joins Workforce GB Olympic swimmer Ben Proud, four-time Greece Olympian Kristian Gkolomeev and US sprinter Fred Kerley in asserting his intentions to compete on the Video games.
The transfer has been criticised by Sport Eire, which says it’s “deeply upset” with the choice.
The primary Enhanced Video games are resulting from happen in Las Vegas in 2026 with every occasion awarded a complete prize purse of $500,000 and a $1m on supply for rivals who break world data.
Swim Eire has additionally condemned the transfer, confirming his disassociation with the organisation and that he’ll now not be supplied with any funding or companies.
Ryan competed on the Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Video games, changing into the primary Irish swimmer to take part at three Olympics.
The Olympic Federation of Eire mentioned that Ryan’s transfer to the Enhanced Video games “stands in direct opposition to our core clear sport values”.
