Swimmer Ben Proud, who won an Olympic silver medal at Paris 2024, has become the first British athlete to join the Enhanced Games, a competition where athletes will be free to use performance-enhancing drugs.

Proud, a world and European champion in the 50m freestyle, will be barred from international competition for taking part in the drug-fuelled spectacle.

The event has been criticised for endangering athletes' health, with the World Anti-Doping Agency describing it as a "dangerous and irresponsible project".

The inaugural event, comprising swimming, sprinting and weightlifting, is set to be held in Las Vegas in May 2026.

"I think it opens up the potential avenue to excel in a very different way," 30-year-old Proud told the BBC.

"I think realistically I've achieved everything I can,

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