Speaker 1: It's the Summer Olympics in Paris twenty twenty four. There's
Speaker 1: a swimmer competing that year, Hunter Armstrong, and Hunter does
Speaker 1: well so well actually one gold, one silver, that his
Speaker 1: swim sponsor comes to him with news.
Speaker 2: They told me while I was in Paris that they
Speaker 2: were going to extend my contract and even give me
Speaker 2: a raise.
Speaker 1: It's Hunter's second Olympics and his second gold medal he
Speaker 1: competed in Tokyo two and so after finding out about
Speaker 1: his extended contract and pay raise, he figures he's been
Speaker 1: a pro swimmer for long enough now, and with this
Speaker 1: new raise.
Speaker 2: I made a decision to move back to Ohio and
Speaker 2: build my life as an adult, and so I bought dogs,
Speaker 2: I bought a house. A month or two after I
Speaker 2: got back from Paris, I get a call from my
Speaker 2: agent saying that the company that I was working with
Speaker 2: decided that they are going to start doing more CrossFit,
Speaker 2: more like pickleball, and that this partner is not going
Speaker 2: to work with me anymore. So I went from a
Speaker 2: figure that was good enough to buy a house to
Speaker 2: zero in a minute.
Speaker 1: Whatever's going on with Hunter sponsor, with sports in general,
Speaker 1: it's not personal, but the reality is he needs the money.
Speaker 1: And something he's noticed ever since going pro, people can
Speaker 1: get a bit presumptuous about his job, like the money
Speaker 1: isn't the point.
Speaker 2: You're doing it for your country. You're doing it because
Speaker 2: you really want that gold. And I do love this sport,
Speaker 2: but it's my job. If my job is not paying,
Speaker 2: then I'm going to get a different job. I guess
Speaker 2: people don't really think about professional athletes being.
Speaker 1: You know, professional, and so Hunter started looking for other
Speaker 1: ways to make money, and that's when he found out
Speaker 1: about Enhanced.
Speaker 3: By the time he found out, his sponsor dropped him,
Speaker 3: Hunter had already bought that house in Ohio. In fact,
Speaker 3: the pool he was going to for his daily training
Speaker 3: was at Ohio State, where he'd gone to college.
Speaker 2: When I told them that I was even considering the
Speaker 2: enhanced games, I was told by a coach, I won't
Speaker 2: say which one. He does not want to see me
Speaker 2: there until I make a decision, and if that decision
Speaker 2: is enhanced, then he wants nothing to do with me.
Speaker 4: How did that make you feel.
Speaker 3: That's my co producer Lena, by the way, also on this.
Speaker 2: Call horrible, I mean this was this is my alma mater.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing about Hunter. Aside from being a pro athlete,
Speaker 1: he's nothing like any of the other Enhanced Games athletes
Speaker 1: you've met so far on this show.
Speaker 3: That's because even.
Speaker 1: Though Hunter was considering signing with the Enhanced Games, the
Speaker 1: thing he wasn't considering doing at all was doping.
Speaker 2: I'd had several sit downs, and I'm like, according to this,
Speaker 2: I'm not in violation of anything. We're good. But from
Speaker 2: his side, if I were to have a violation, if
Speaker 2: I were to get banned, it is against the rules
Speaker 2: as a coach to train a banned athlete.
Speaker 3: Last summer, about a month after Enhanced officially announced their
Speaker 3: plan to host the Games in Vegas. World Aquatics they're
Speaker 3: the folks in charge of clean swimming and diving at
Speaker 3: the international level, they added an amendment to their rule
Speaker 3: book about athlete eligibility.
Speaker 1: Obviously, if you're a swimmer caught doping, you can't compete
Speaker 1: in clean sport. For example, the Olympics. Doping equals no Olympics.
Speaker 2: We know this.
Speaker 3: What World Aquatics added to the equation are caveats about
Speaker 3: people benefiting financially from doping.
Speaker 1: But the new language in the rule book is written
Speaker 1: with some ambiguity enough so that Hunter and his lawyer
Speaker 1: think he's got a good case to make for competing
Speaker 1: and enhanced and remaining in the Olympics pipeline, having his
Speaker 1: cake and eating it too. Basically, Hunter's point is, as
Speaker 1: long as he's been a pro swimmer, he's always made
Speaker 1: himself available for drug testing, and he's never failed a
Speaker 1: drug test. So even if he participates in enhanced, so
Speaker 1: long as he remains available to world aquatics for drug tests,
Speaker 1: he should be able to do both.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have to tell them where I am
Speaker 2: every hour of every day, and I've been doing that
Speaker 2: since twenty twenty and so since I never left their site,
Speaker 2: that's why we feel that I'm able to do both.
Speaker 1: For the record, nobody has officially told Hunter he's right
Speaker 1: on this one. Which is gonna say he hasn't asked.
Speaker 1: He's asked multiple organizations multiple times.
Speaker 2: They're all like, I can't give you an answer to that.
Speaker 2: I feel like nobody wants to be the guy to
Speaker 2: say it.
Speaker 3: Hunter is making a calculation, a career gamble. The way
Speaker 3: he sees it, he's basically out of options. At least
Speaker 3: this way he's getting paid if he wins his events
Speaker 3: at the Enhanced Games, he'll make one of the biggest
Speaker 3: paychecks of his life.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna ban me, then this is what I
Speaker 2: have to do to survive. So if I'm known for
Speaker 2: the rest of my life as a doper, it's fine.
Speaker 2: I wasn't still am not.
Speaker 1: There are indications that his argument's going to hold. For instance,
Speaker 1: I asked Hunter how soon after officially announcing he was
Speaker 1: going to swim for enhance, did drug tests show up
Speaker 1: at his front door.
Speaker 2: I kid you not. Next morning?
Speaker 1: Wow, say more about that.
Speaker 2: I hate him so much. They they show up at
Speaker 2: the most inconvenient times on purpose. I didn't get back
Speaker 2: to my house until probably three am. They showed up
Speaker 2: at like five or six.
Speaker 3: After his coach at Ohio State drew the line at
Speaker 3: Enhanced Hunter ended up at a local YMCA. He says,
Speaker 3: the pool there is not great.
Speaker 2: Plus I do feel horrible when I'm racing next to
Speaker 2: a sixty year old doing water aerobics. Why oh, I'm
Speaker 2: splashing them. It's very much like the kid who peaked
Speaker 2: in high school showing that he's better. Because these guys
Speaker 2: are just going for fun and to stay healthy, and
Speaker 2: I feel like their perspective is that I'm putting on
Speaker 2: a show, Like, hey, guys, look how fast I can swim.
Speaker 1: The thing is the guy can swim pretty fast. He's
Speaker 1: a backstroke specialist, and he kind of is putting on
Speaker 1: a show or he's preparing to anyway. This phone call
Speaker 1: you're hearing, it's from a couple months ago, the beginning
Speaker 1: of April.
Speaker 3: Now fast forward to the third week in Man to
Speaker 3: a giant and temporary sporting arena on the Las Vegas Strip,
Speaker 3: and for Hunter Armstrong and every other athlete competing at
Speaker 3: the Enhanced Games, it's showtime.
Speaker 1: From Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcast. This is Superhuman. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Chris GUYMMI.
Speaker 3: And I'm Sam Egan.
Speaker 1: We are in beautiful Las Vegas. It's almost eleven am
Speaker 1: and already hot as shit. It's the morning of May
Speaker 1: twenty fourth. Sam, Lena and I are an innuber headed
Speaker 1: to the Games. In anticipation of the day ahead. Lena
Speaker 1: and Sam are exchanging sun block for some reason. All
Speaker 1: three of us are wearing black pants, even though it's
Speaker 1: ninety five degrees out. Truth is, none of us know
Speaker 1: how to dress for the doping Olympics.
Speaker 3: Here we are. It's yeah, what are you saying? It's
Speaker 3: I mean, be honest, it looks not done hot. It's
Speaker 3: really hot.
Speaker 5: Hi, how are you?
Speaker 3: It's incredibly warm.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try and cool it on the weather commentary,
Speaker 1: but it's extremely important to keep in mind that for
Speaker 1: the entire day, at least one of us is always
Speaker 1: complaining about the heat.
Speaker 3: I really don't understand why enhances settled on outside in
Speaker 3: the desert as the best place to break multiple world
Speaker 3: records for sports?
Speaker 4: Can it be makeshift and state of the art at
Speaker 4: the same time, not a bad way to describe.
Speaker 3: I think what we're looking at.
Speaker 1: The layout of the actual competition area is pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: In the center of it is a four lane pool,
Speaker 1: there's a one hundred meter track, and then there's like
Speaker 1: a little elevated platform area where the weightlifters presumably are
Speaker 1: going to be lifting heavy stuff. A reminder, there aren't
Speaker 1: any normal fans at the games. You can't just like
Speaker 1: buy a ticket and fly here to see it. The
Speaker 1: entire event is invite only, and the venue is packed
Speaker 1: with influencers, family members of the athletes, businessmen cozying up
Speaker 1: to Enhanced.
Speaker 3: When we three are standing in line, waiting to be
Speaker 3: brought into the actual venue along with other members of
Speaker 3: the press. A guy walks up to us with two
Speaker 3: of his buddies. He says, hey, I sell peptides. You
Speaker 3: want to interview me?
Speaker 6: It's actually kind of cool, So.
Speaker 1: Finally we're let in. The side of the venue we're
Speaker 1: set up on is like if a cruise ship had
Speaker 1: just stocked there, and there are dozens of small, exposed
Speaker 1: state rooms overlooking the field and pool accept no walls.
Speaker 1: The Press is put in one of those rooms, which
Speaker 1: is nice in some ways. It's stocked with bottles of
Speaker 1: water and pellegrino. There's shade, electrical outlets, and a ton
Speaker 1: of food. Fancy food, apercheep cheeses served with cured meats
Speaker 1: and bean dips.
Speaker 3: Although because of the heat, the cheeses keep collapsing and
Speaker 3: melting into each other in the two or so minutes
Speaker 3: it takes the caterers to bring it to us, which
Speaker 3: makes it pretty hard to actually eat.
Speaker 1: The rest of the food is coursed out gaspacho with watermelon,
Speaker 1: mini lobster rolls, jumbo shrimp, cocktail.
Speaker 3: Wagu sliders, vegan broughtwurst, and polish sausages.
Speaker 1: Carnitas and al pastor. There's dim sum, shoe My dumplings,
Speaker 1: pork buns, and spicy wantons.
Speaker 3: What we lack in access access to the athletes, to
Speaker 3: the other attendees at the games, Enhanced makes up for
Speaker 3: it in catered food, which is to say a lot.
Speaker 3: At one point, Lena and I leave the press area
Speaker 3: to walk around a bit before the game starts, just
Speaker 3: to see who else is there, and we see a guy.
Speaker 3: Lena thinks she knows, so we walk up. It's all, well,
Speaker 3: I'm immediately one of Enhanced press team walks over to
Speaker 3: show us a wedding.
Speaker 7: I think I have to shut this down. I'm sorry,
Speaker 7: you're good, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: We stand around awkwardly for another ten or so minutes,
Speaker 3: the press team still watching us. Some of the guests
Speaker 3: the off limit ones. I recognize them. There's people who
Speaker 3: work out professionally on TikTok or YouTube, but we're told
Speaker 3: we're not supposed to talk to them.
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm a Coachella huh.
Speaker 3: Finally, we just decided to go back to the press
Speaker 3: area where we're actually allowed to be.
Speaker 4: I thought that was Kate McKinnon.
Speaker 7: I don't know who Kate McKinnon is.
Speaker 4: Yes, you do. She was on sl for like ten years.
Speaker 3: I'm not an SNL guy.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I'm not an SNL girl.
Speaker 7: I'm just aware of the zeitgeist.
Speaker 3: As I put her around waiting for the games to start,
Speaker 3: I happen on an influencer that I reckon, and for
Speaker 3: whatever reason, he's game to talk to. Day Egan, Sammy Egan,
Speaker 3: Jesse and Jesse James West is a fitness content creator
Speaker 3: with a few million followers on Instagram. He's standing in
Speaker 3: the corner of the arena next to the blue carpet.
Speaker 3: You get it, like red carpet, but blue because that's
Speaker 3: enhanced color. Jesse's got a camera guy following him and
Speaker 3: he's holding a loaf mic. So you're obviously not coming from,
Speaker 3: like I guess, a journalism background. Your market, Okay, this
Speaker 3: influencers side. I think many journalistic things like this is.
Speaker 3: Jesse explains he's here for a story he's working on
Speaker 3: about the enhanced games, specifically about what a good idea
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 5: When I look for content, when I look for making
Speaker 5: viral videos. If someone was to say, hey, we have
Speaker 5: this idea, we can make you an awesome video. If
Speaker 5: we got a bunch of people that are on gear
Speaker 5: peptides or steroids to come in and compete, I'd be like,
Speaker 5: that is the best idea I've ever heard of. Like
Speaker 5: when it comes to putting your health first, it seems
Speaker 5: to be the trend, and it's a positive trend.
Speaker 3: Jesse stops for a second to pull out his phone.
Speaker 3: He says he's gonna enhanced co founder Christian Ingermyer see
Speaker 3: where he is. You got Christian's personal number A lot
Speaker 3: of I think a lot of members of the press don't.
Speaker 3: I'm getting curious. You know, why do you think the
Speaker 3: new wave of the press, like the influencer journalism, Why
Speaker 3: do you think that that is taking over?
Speaker 5: I think we were and I mean this in no
Speaker 5: disrespect at all. I think we were quicker. It's so
Speaker 5: much more. It's so immediate what we can do, Like
Speaker 5: I'm gonna be posting multiple tiktoks in the next few
Speaker 5: hours of this event that we'll get a lot of views,
Speaker 5: and then my long form video will take maximumly two.
Speaker 3: Weeks, Jesse says. Compared to him pressed like us move
Speaker 3: like stales, which okay.
Speaker 5: Finders, I'm not somebody who ever tries to like fuck
Speaker 5: people over, you know, because it's just gonna hurt the
Speaker 5: next relationship.
Speaker 3: What he means is he's not trying to fuck over
Speaker 3: Enhanced by reporting anything negative about because that'll make it
Speaker 3: harder for him to report on other people. Enhanced is
Speaker 3: at all connected to and look in my regular life,
Speaker 3: where I'm just a guy out on a Saturday grab
Speaker 3: drinks of friends. Also, I don't try to be overly probing,
Speaker 3: not because it'll make my friends dislike me. More like,
Speaker 3: I just think things go better in the world when
Speaker 3: none of us are intentionally being dicked. But that's not
Speaker 3: what journalists.
Speaker 5: We have algorithms that if we figure.
Speaker 3: It out anyway. At this moment, Jesse pulls away from me.
Speaker 3: Christian Anger Myers just arrived at Jesse Summer. I just
Speaker 3: got bumped out of the way for this influencer of
Speaker 3: the interview, Christian anger Meyer. They talk for maybe twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: When I ask Christians Handlers for my turn with him,
Speaker 3: they tell me I can have five. He's the same
Speaker 3: old Christian basically saying to me the same things he's
Speaker 3: told me before. You What do you think is necessary
Speaker 3: to define today as a success? What do you what
Speaker 3: do you think needs to happen out there?
Speaker 6: We have to break world records, and I think we will.
Speaker 6: My guess is like two to five, two to four
Speaker 6: world records.
Speaker 3: There's another metrics by which Christian measure success.
Speaker 6: It's how many sort of fuse we have in socialist
Speaker 6: or whatever, and it's going in the billions. So and
Speaker 6: that's what I would have told you two weeks ago.
Speaker 6: I'm maybe happy, even because we spoke before that. I
Speaker 6: think I will be very happy if all in all
Speaker 6: we have like a billion fuse and I think we
Speaker 6: have that already before the game, So that's gonna That's
Speaker 6: why I'm happy.
Speaker 3: If even half of the guests invited have a following
Speaker 3: close to Jesse's the influence wer I was just talking to,
Speaker 3: then I guess, yeah, Christian might get his billion views.
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a challenge to fact check, of course,
Speaker 3: but those billion views they underline something you really wouldn't
Speaker 3: know unless you're there at the games, which is that
Speaker 3: for the rest of the day, the stands are kind
Speaker 3: of empty. Maybe it's the heat or the free drinks
Speaker 3: and food, but until we leave it around midnight, one
Speaker 3: thing remains true. There's more people mingling behind the stadium
Speaker 3: than actually watching the games. Still, inevitably, the games begin
Speaker 3: across three different categories, weightlifting, track and swimming. For the
Speaker 3: first stretch, it's weightlifting women snatch. One by one, athletes
Speaker 3: walk up onto a very sunny stage, squat down and
Speaker 3: grip the loaded barboe.
Speaker 5: Wow, she's got it, she's got a fight, she's got
Speaker 5: a fight, she's up.
Speaker 2: Oh great attempt.
Speaker 3: Nobody comes close to breaking a world record. Weightlifter after
Speaker 3: weightlifter comes on stage.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh oh wow, surprising, very surprising.
Speaker 3: What went wrong? Actually, only a few even try to
Speaker 3: break world records. There are some personal bests and plenty
Speaker 3: of prize money won, because remember, athletes get paid up
Speaker 3: to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for coming in
Speaker 3: first and fifty thousand dollars for placing fourth. So plenty
Speaker 3: of happy weightlifters and swimmers and track stars. But world records,
Speaker 3: world records, there are not.
Speaker 5: He's so close, the defeat is so painful.
Speaker 3: On the jumbo screen above the stage, each athlete's performance
Speaker 3: is presented the same way, their name, their personal best,
Speaker 3: and the world record.
Speaker 4: I will say my opinion is that because they keep
Speaker 4: projecting what the world record is. Seeing someone that you
Speaker 4: know is on drugs not coming close to it kind
Speaker 4: of makes me feel like, oh, that's extra unimpressive.
Speaker 1: As the day beats on something that, to be honest,
Speaker 1: we're really not expecting starts to happen. Hunter Armstrong, the
Speaker 1: enhanced swimmer who isn't enhanced. He's on the edge of
Speaker 1: the pool ready to dive in for the fifty meters
Speaker 1: back show, competing against swimmers who are enhanced.
Speaker 3: Hunter one.
Speaker 1: The athletes who haven't dope keep eating the athletes who have,
Speaker 1: and it keeps happening, Like at the women's one hundred
Speaker 1: meter sprint, what it means for her a non enhanced athlete,
Speaker 1: second non enhanced athlete we've seen win in these events,
Speaker 1: and at the men's one hundred meter sprint, unenhanced athletes
Speaker 1: keep taking the top.
Speaker 3: This is it, ladies and gentlemen, this is a moment.
Speaker 3: Quite literally, we have all been waiting.
Speaker 2: For one of them.
Speaker 1: Fred Curley. Folks actually are expecting him to win, maybe
Speaker 1: even beat the world record.
Speaker 2: Wait, Fred Curly.
Speaker 1: But when it's time for his race and false starts
Speaker 1: keep forcing him and the other runners to start over again.
Speaker 3: It's a false start. Second time, another false start.
Speaker 7: Frustration is beauty.
Speaker 1: In total, it took three tries to actually complete the sprint, and.
Speaker 7: It's a clean start.
Speaker 3: Curly Matati in two and four coming down the stretch, Curly, it's.
Speaker 7: Gonna take it.
Speaker 2: And Curly's gonna come in with a time up at
Speaker 2: nine point.
Speaker 1: Nine eight, and Curly did win.
Speaker 3: Not the results that he was looking for in terms
Speaker 3: of the time, but the outcome in terms of his
Speaker 3: placement is.
Speaker 1: Still the same, which means he walked away two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Richard, will you look disappointed?
Speaker 6: You saw that, A lot of false stars, a lot
Speaker 6: of jumping.
Speaker 3: They gotta do better than that.
Speaker 1: Do you think if it would have gone our first
Speaker 1: time you could have had a shot.
Speaker 3: I'm ready to run five, but no world record. And
Speaker 3: Megan Romana, who came out of retirement to compete in
Speaker 3: the Games, God, Meghan looks fucking shreddedy. She wins one
Speaker 3: of her races, the one hundred meter free.
Speaker 1: Meghan, congratulations the winner of that race. Two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: You are raised.
Speaker 1: I mean, looking at Shaite, she's in it.
Speaker 3: Was a personal best for Megan and after ten years
Speaker 3: of retirement. Really impressive. I mean, but it certainly wasn't
Speaker 3: a world record.
Speaker 1: In the fifty meters butterfly, a race that includes Andre
Speaker 1: Govra from Ukraine and Ben Proud from the UK.
Speaker 2: Oh so close, I thought he had it.
Speaker 3: What a bizarre race.
Speaker 1: Ben Proud does swim at twenty two point three to
Speaker 1: two point zero five seconds, shy of the world record,
Speaker 1: which does make him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars richer,
Speaker 1: Still no world record. In the late afternoon, the biohacker
Speaker 1: Brian Johnson slides into the commentary booth, holding up an
Speaker 1: umbrella to block the sun. Enhanced CEO Max Martin posts
Speaker 1: a photo to his Instagram stories of him and the
Speaker 1: DJ Diplow hanging out in one of the suites, but
Speaker 1: front and center on the track in the pool by
Speaker 1: the waits. They can't seem to break a world record.
Speaker 1: Not that the influencers seem to care. Throughout the day,
Speaker 1: they walk around making content. Very little of that content
Speaker 1: features the enhanced games. It's more like content of the
Speaker 1: influencers who happen to be at the enhanced games. It
Speaker 1: you know, those museums of ice cream, which pop up
Speaker 1: all over America, specifically so people can go and take
Speaker 1: pictures to put on Instagram in a pool of sprinkles
Speaker 1: or inside an ice cream sandwich. The Enhanced games are
Speaker 1: like a museum of ice cream, except instead of a
Speaker 1: pool of sprinkles, it's a pool of Olympians.
Speaker 3: My favorite moment when a group of teen boys wanders
Speaker 3: into the center of the arena by the pool and
Speaker 3: film each other laughing and dancing like they're in the
Speaker 3: video game Fortnite. Well, a literal swim race is held
Speaker 3: of these are safe, they really are, like, they really
Speaker 3: are so young. Lookod they have like five DSLRs.
Speaker 1: These teens, their presence makes for some pretty powerful cognitive dissonance.
Speaker 2: Let's say, yeah it, get it.
Speaker 1: What Enhanced is literally selling is the promise to wash
Speaker 1: millennials like myself that we too can feel ten years
Speaker 1: younger if we buy their products. This coterie of influencers
Speaker 1: who haven't yet woken up with lower back pain feels
Speaker 1: I don't know, tonally off, or maybe the point is
Speaker 1: buy our shit and you two can hang like these
Speaker 1: teens at the same time. This whole time, The whole
Speaker 1: point of this is to break world records. Christian told
Speaker 1: us so this morning, and six months ago and last year.
Speaker 3: The hours tick on, athletes make their entrance, and each
Speaker 3: event is over in a few TikTok friendly seconds, and
Speaker 3: still no world records. When the sun finally starts to fall,
Speaker 3: I have a thought. Did Enhance bamboozle us into doing
Speaker 3: them a favor? Are we just instruments for drumming up attention,
Speaker 3: no different than those zoomer influencers dancing pool side.
Speaker 1: Finally, it's time for the last event, the big one,
Speaker 1: the men's fifty meter freestyle, one lap across the pool.
Speaker 1: It'll be a four horse race between Ben Proud, Anjigovrov,
Speaker 1: James Magnuson, and the guy who already broke this exact record,
Speaker 1: at least according to enhanced one year ago, Christian Golamif
Speaker 1: the tension in the air is palpable, it feels like
Speaker 1: we're about to find out if this whole thing is
Speaker 1: a total flop or if there really is something to
Speaker 1: this whole Enhance thing.
Speaker 7: Nope, I got one.
Speaker 3: Christian golamof twenty point eight one seconds. He beat the
Speaker 3: world record by point oh seven seconds. They did it
Speaker 3: after six hours in the desert and many millions of
Speaker 3: dollars spent here. It is the one world record for
Speaker 3: some reason. A bunch of red lights pulsate throughout the arena,
Speaker 3: like we've all been playing Call of Duty and I've
Speaker 3: taken too much damage. Swim coach Brett Hawk jumps into
Speaker 3: the pool. So does the Mountain from Game of Thrones,
Speaker 3: who tried and failed to break the deadlift record earlier tonight.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they did it, didn't they does? A guy
Speaker 3: who just jumped up back to the Bulgarian flag.
Speaker 1: From the corner of my eye, I see Ben Proud
Speaker 1: and can help but think about how hard this guy
Speaker 1: has worked his whole life. I think about his spreadsheets
Speaker 1: design to track his entire body, his commitments. Is sleeping alone,
Speaker 1: even though he's in a committed relationship. To get the
Speaker 1: best leap possible. He spent years hold up in hotel
Speaker 1: rooms playing games on his phone until it's time to
Speaker 1: go back to swim practice. Tonight is just not his night.
Speaker 1: Now he's standing off to the side holding his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Emily Barclay. She's also part of Enhanced and still wearing
Speaker 1: her swimsuit, and they just stand there like that hugging.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like they're saying anything to each other.
Speaker 1: Maybe there isn't anything to say.
Speaker 3: This morning, when Chris, Lena and I were ubering over
Speaker 3: to the Games, our driver asked us what we were
Speaker 3: in town for the Enhanced Games. We said, haven't heard
Speaker 3: of it, she responded. Then she said, but you know
Speaker 3: what else is happening tonight. BTS is playing. Everyone in
Speaker 3: Vegas they're here to see BTS. BTS. If you don't know,
Speaker 3: they're a K pop group, one of the most famous
Speaker 3: music groups in the world.
Speaker 1: If you don't know BTS, you might know The Killers.
Speaker 1: Their song mister Brightside was really popular back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four when their debut album came out. These days,
Speaker 1: you can hear mister Bright's Side at every single wedding
Speaker 1: reception towards the end of the night, when everyone's starting
Speaker 1: to get a little tired.
Speaker 3: The Killers play towards the end of the night at
Speaker 3: the Enhanced Games too. Literally. The band is from Vegas
Speaker 3: and they perform a mini set on the enhanced stage.
Speaker 3: The bleachers are really thinned out at this point, but
Speaker 3: the athletes, the older ones anyway, they seem to be
Speaker 3: enjoying it. The band opens with mister Branson.
Speaker 1: You know those very rare, full moons that take up
Speaker 1: much more sky than seems reasonable. Like you look out
Speaker 1: and most of what you see is the moon, a
Speaker 1: giant bright orb, reminding you how small you are. Well,
Speaker 1: just beyond the killers is the Las Vegas sphere, that
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar totem to our high tech now and
Speaker 1: the way it's framing the stadium. I don't know what
Speaker 1: else to compare it to. I want to go back
Speaker 1: to Hunter Armstrong, the enhanced swimmer who didn't dope. Also
Speaker 1: the enhanced swimmer who all told made three hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Today, I'd say that the top end male athletes contract
Speaker 2: I've made close to, if not matched, their best deals
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: When Hunter finished his second and final race at the
Speaker 1: Enhanced Games, he was brought backstage by an enhanced executive.
Speaker 1: His name is Rick.
Speaker 2: As soon as I was done, I was taken through
Speaker 2: a little bit of media and Rick met me and
Speaker 2: he's like, hey, go pie in a cup, Mike, gotcha?
Speaker 1: Hi, guys, the drug testers from WATA, they were there
Speaker 1: that day watching Hunter compete.
Speaker 2: Hopefully they enjoyed the show.
Speaker 1: And they'd been testing him all weekend too.
Speaker 2: I had four total tests while I was in Vegas,
Speaker 2: so I think I had three tests within thirty two hours.
Speaker 2: And then I competed and they tested me at the complex.
Speaker 1: Which Hunter says totally annoying, but also that's just how
Speaker 1: it goes. He's used to it. I remember something Hunter
Speaker 1: told me the first time we talked a few months
Speaker 1: ago before he'd committed to Enhance, but after that sponsor
Speaker 1: dropped him, he was going back and forth on next
Speaker 1: steps for making money. He thought maybe he could teach
Speaker 1: swim clinics, teach new swimmers skills and techniques, but his
Speaker 1: fear was that pretty quickly the next generation of late
Speaker 1: swimmers are going to come for him for his job.
Speaker 2: If I'm not actively competing, my relevance will go down,
Speaker 2: and so eventually I'm going to lose that opportunity anyway.
Speaker 2: But if I join Enhanced, maybe I'll have more longevity.
Speaker 1: Long Jeff, that word. I think this is literally the
Speaker 1: only time I've heard someone use it in the context
Speaker 1: of Enhanced without meaning like turning back a clock, reverse aging.
Speaker 2: Longevity In my career, all encapsulating, so my longevity, as relevancy,
Speaker 2: my identity as a swimmer.
Speaker 1: All of which funnel into something much more important to
Speaker 1: Hunter than swimming. Just like we've heard from the other
Speaker 1: athletes Megan andre Ben, Proud, Hunter just wants to know
Speaker 1: even if he's chosen a career with an expiration date,
Speaker 1: he can still be okay in the long run.
Speaker 2: Because I swear to you the day that I retire,
Speaker 2: I'm not making any more Instagram posts, I'm not doing vlogs.
Speaker 2: I just want to live my small town life with
Speaker 2: the white picket fence and have it is running on
Speaker 2: the backyard.
Speaker 1: Superhuman is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 1: The series is produced, reported, and co hosted by Sammy Egan.
Speaker 1: Then Mstis Medal is our senior producer. Production support from
Speaker 1: Dara luck Potts, edited by Kate Osborne, editorial consulting by
Speaker 1: Adisa Egan, original composition and mixing by Hannis Brown, Reported
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Chris Guy Molly from Kaleidoscope. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Kate Osborne, Ozwa Lashin, Mangeshatikador, and Kosislinos.
Speaker 1: Julian Nutter is the head of Studio for Kaleidoscope and
Speaker 1: From My Heart. Our executive producers are Katrina Norvil and
Speaker 1: Nikki Etor BacT checking by Lina Shang, Engineering by Mitch
Speaker 1: Lee and Zoltan Sindhu. If you like what you're hearing,
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