It was probably only a matter of time before an Irish sportsperson declared for the Enhanced Games. We have, after all, more than held our end up when it comes to supplying the Olympics with doping stories over the past couple of decades, so why should this be any different? The whole enterprise might be considered to lack legitimacy without us.
Last summer, Shane Ryan became the first ever swimmer to represent Ireland at three Olympic Games. In a decade swimming in an Irish hat, he has won medals at world, European and university level. He is the holder of 10 solo Irish records and three relay records. And now, a week after announcing his retirement, he’s off to join the doped-up circus in Vegas. Sigh.
The first thing to say is that the organisers of the Enhanced Games have chosen well here. It may not seem that Ryan is a big name in the general scheme of things – and he isn’t. He never swam in an Olympic final and, indeed, there’s a fair chance he would never have made the Olympics at all if he’d continued in the US system after failing to qualify for the 2012 games. He had a solid, middle-of-the-road career. He is nobody’s idea of a headline act on the global stage.
But whatever about his athletic prowess, Ryan is a big character. The Philadelphia-born son of Portarlington’s Thomas Ryan is likeable and engaging and well able to talk. In the run-up to the first ever Enhanced Games in May 2026, the organisers are going to need their athletes to be out front, selling this whole gross sham to the world. It won’t be a surprise if someone as articulate and sunny as Ryan finds himself doing the heavy lifting.
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He was already out there on Monday night, taking people to task on his Instagram. It was all very respectful and at no stage did he start throwing bombs around the place or get abusive with anybody. Ryan is an upside type of guy. This is how he tends to roll.
“What we’re doing is absolutely top-notch science,” was one reply he sent. “For the first time all of us athletes are actually getting the cared [sic] that we should have been gotten for years. We are also getting paid so well. I will be making 3 to 4 times more than I have been my whole time with ireland in just 9 months. My biggest thing is I want to educate people on ... exactly what we’re doing so then people can understand better. All I’m trying to do is get my body right, have fun with my friends, swim fast and set up my future!”
There will be a lot of this. For all the revulsion out in the world from people who can’t fathom an upside to legitimising drugged-up sport, the athletes themselves don’t need to be schooled on their talking points. My body, my choice, etc. When another poster asked Ryan what his motivation is for signing up, he told the truth. Well, he told his truth.
“My motivation to join is I’m actually doing something for myself. For the past two Olympic Games, I’ve had opportunities taken away from me. I sacrifice multiple events and Olympic athletes do not get paid at all. It’s well below minimum wage. I’m setting up for my future financially also I will be coming out with a better body as well because we are getting absolutely phenomenal care!”
Ryan’s reference to opportunities being taken away at the past two Olympic Games is obviously a little self-serving here. He qualified to swim in the 100m backstroke in Tokyo but had to pull out of that race the day before competition because of shoulder pain. In the run-up to Paris, he hit the qualifying time for the 50m freestyle but didn’t do it in one of Swim Ireland’s designated qualifying events and had to settle for only competing in the relay.
Though he deserves a certain amount of sympathy in both cases, there’s no scandal to either of them. Injuries are injuries and the qualifying rules are the same for everyone. Using those situations now as a pretext or justification for joining something as nakedly dodgy and anti-sport as the Enhanced Games is disingenuous.
Because ultimately, there’s not a lot of mystery involved here. Ryan is going to take performance-enhancing drugs and compete using them because he’s getting paid to do so. At the age of 31, he has never made much of a living out of being an Olympian. He qualified for €18,000 in Sport Ireland funding this year. In close to a decade in the Irish system, he never got more than €20,000 in any year of the carding scheme.
“This isn’t something for the kids,” he told another poster. “I still support clean sport 100% when it comes to training for the Olympic Games. I am retired. I’m forever grateful for swim ireland. But for once, I’m doing something for myself. I’m training with a great group of friends, getting my body right and then I’m also getting paid more than I ever had when I completed for ireland.”
[ Sex, drugs and alcohol: Excuses never far away when it comes to doping offencesOpens in new window ]
Ryan has clearly decided that this is the best way of turning a buck, even if it means being a paid stooge of miserable tech billionaires with God complexes. His paymasters are the likes of Donald Trump jnr and Peter Thiel, the sort of rapacious, swivel-eyed loons who will think nothing of discarding him like so much human mulch if he’s not doing the business. Hard to imagine getting a sicknote for a sore shoulder when there’s all the pharmaceutical help in the world sitting on the pool deck.
Ryan has made his choice. He will need to tread carefully.
