WEBVTT - Silver Medal Mentality 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.480 Okay, so it's the year two thousand. The men's seventy 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.720 six kilo freestyle wrestling ceremony at the Summer Olympics in Australia. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:25.240 In first place Alexander Leopold from Germany, in third place 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.600 Moonwee Jay from South Korea, and in second. 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:33.680 Brandon Slay born and raised in Amerlo, Texas. If you 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.040 see pictures of me on the word stand, I wasn't smiling, 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:41.080 I wasn't happy with my silver. I was frustrated. Anger 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.280 is the word. I was really angry. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.240 Anyone watching could tell Where the other two Olympians stood smiling, 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.960 their arms embracing each other. Brandon was slackshawed. His arms 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.040 were down, hands held together, as if he were paying 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:57.160 respects at a funeral. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.360 A lot of people don't realize that the fir with 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.919 the bronze just won. They guaranteed themselves an Olympic medal. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.280 The person with the bronze is happy. The person who 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.280 just won the gold medal they just won. The old 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.240 person up there that just lost is the person with 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:14.680 the silver. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.920 To Brannon, silver medalists live in some sort of hinderland, 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.240 better than good enough, but not good enough to be 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.920 the best. Three weeks later, when the games were over, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.720 after enough time had passed for Brannan to make it 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:29.080 back home to Texas, there's. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.000 Enough time for me to go start speaking to kids 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.560 with my Olympic silver, telling them that I believe there's 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:36.880 more to life than gold medals. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.200 Brandon got a call from the International Olympic Committee the IOC. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.800 It was about a routine drug test he and his 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.920 fellow wrestlers had taken right before the last match, the 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:47.080 one where he played second. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:51.880 They said Alexander Lee Polt was twenty times over for 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.360 a drug called nangelone. We've lapped his name, Clint from 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.120 the Olympics. We've taken away his Olympic gold medal. Congratulations 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.840 the two thousand Olympic champion. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:10.640 Over the phone, when you learned that your metal got 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:11.600 upgraded to gold? 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.040 What was going through your head? 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.960 Well, I don't feel like I don't feel like I 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.360 really got even a chance to wrestle that night in Sydney, Australia. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.920 Actually, when they told him he'd won gold, Brennan's first 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:28.760 instinct was to ask for a rematch. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:31.240 I was like, is there any way I can wrestle 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.360 him for that? Like you know, let's let's put a 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.080 match together. I'm willing to lay it on the line, 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:37.680 like if he beats me again, he beats me, and 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:39.600 finally I think he gets frustrated with me. He's like, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.640 he's like, mister Slade, do you want the gold medal 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:41.880 or not. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.520 In the end, Brennan said yes to the gold medal. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.560 But by the way, nothing changed in me. It's not 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.679 like I went from silver and I got the gold 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:54.400 and all of a sudden I reached this new level 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.200 of you know, Buddhism because I got the gold. I 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.200 didn't hit Nirvana or something with silver to gold. I 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.960 was the same guy. I didn't do anything extra accept 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:10.360 it except the gift. But the gift came from somebody 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.520 else making poor decisions. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.240 There's something about Brandan's word choice here, gift. It's just 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.680 so different from the word win. The thing is, though 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.240 he didn't win, or at least he didn't come in first. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.400 Really all he got was a different medal. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:30.079 What did you do with the silver medal? 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:36.160 They made me mail that back FedEx to the International 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:37.800 Olympic Committee, And so you know I did. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.920 From Kaleidoscope an iHeart podcast, This is Superhuman I'm Chris Guyamali. 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.120 So the Enhanced Games are coming up in just a 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.120 few weeks. At the end of May. Last October, my 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.480 producer Semini went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.160 to watch the enhanced swimmer's practice. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.360 Trying to figure out which shortcakes up inside swimming. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:12.280 But first we needed to actually find the aquatic center. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:15.000 You remember. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.800 To zero the stench of chlorine mixed with sweat and 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.640 other bodily fluids is what smacks you in the face. First, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.880 someone's blasting throwback hip hop like Lil Wayne and Biggie 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.400 from a big speaker on wheels, and the base kind 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.200 of ping pongs around the rafters. Dozens of championship banners 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.920 hang high up on the walls. Once it became clear 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.279 that the Enhanced Games were actually going to happen, athletes 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.000 came out of the woodwork wanting to sign on. So 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.719 these athletes, they're mostly on the wrong side of thirty, 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.120 just a little bit outside of their primes, but they 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:49.960 all feel like they have a little more in the tank, 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.120 and they've chosen a sign with enhance for. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.000 All sorts of reasons. 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.599 We got world in national record holders from Ukraine Brazil, Greece, 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.120 at least Olympic silver medalists from the UK. They haven't 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.599 started doing any drugs yet. This is training camp and 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:08.920 the first objective is mostly to help them get back 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.600 into competition shape and in some cases to refamiliarize athletes 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.440 with the water running swim practice is longtime Olympic coach 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.520 Brett Hawk, the same guy who trained James Magnuson a 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.400 year earlier at that public pool in Irvine, California. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.880 No, today's definitely a power resistance workout, so they're going 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:29.720 to use a lot of resistance tools. They're going to 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:34.800 use the Boka, the towers socks on their feet, resistant socks, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:36.839 They're going to use some stretch boards that we have 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.960 down here. So it's all resist advice today. So you'll 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.960 see a lot of slow, technical swimming and then you'll 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.560 see a lot of power resisted swimming. 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.800 Yet, so I've interviewed a lot of extremely fit people 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.040 over the years, UFC stars like Israel Desanya and Kamara Usman, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.320 well in the celebrities like Andrew Huberman. Still it's hard 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.320 to overstate how jarring it is to send around this 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.599 many swimmers of this caliber all in one place. It's humbling. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.320 I'm a pretty fit person, but being around all of 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.719 these beautiful eight packs, I feel like some sort of goblin. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.080 And remember, these guys haven't even started doping yet. Who 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:15.480 knows what they'll look like by the end of me 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.480 Their physiques. 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:18.160 Already look immaculate. 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.560 There's length in places in the body where I didn't 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.600 know there could be length before. I'm also looking at 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:26.800 the sizes of their hands. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:28.560 It's like there's something very weavy. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.359 The way that their heads are, It's like they have 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.239 flippers already built into their bodies. 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:40.280 The Brown Boys. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:46.360 That was direct a spread to a couple of thigholes 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:52.360 and then Quitch off ill. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.800 From the side of the pool. Brett Hawk commands just 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.920 as much attention as the athletes themselves. 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.600 I previously swam for Astroyer at to Olympics two thousand 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.200 and two thousand and four, and I've been a three 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:06.599 time Olympic coach. I coached the fastest man in history 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.840 in Caesar Ciello, who has the official world record. 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.560 Here in Las Vegas, Brett's and Hans team continues to grow. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.280 There's Andre, the Ukrainian Butterfly, and there's others too. Mirius Kush, 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.480 Shane Ryan, Christian Golomeiev. This much talent all in one pool, 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:26.680 Brett says, it's unprecedented. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.560 Yeah, you might have one or two guys that are 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.720 trained together that compete against each other, but to have 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.840 a whole group like this, and these are the best 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.760 swimmers in the world, you know. So I've never really 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:42.080 seen anything to this extent at this level. It's amazing, honestly. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.920 Even so, one swimmer in particular immediately stands out. His 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.720 name is Ben Proud, a thirty one year old former 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.800 Olympian and a prominent one. He was the world champion 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.920 fifty meter freestyler back in twenty twenty two. 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.800 Ben's just one of those very thoughtful, intelligent sprinters that 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.560 you know you can't help but really lock him. He's 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.720 just a I think Ben has so many things that 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.040 you look at and you think, wow, where are the weaknesses. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:07.960 They're hard to. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.520 Spot, but Brett says, Ben is especially fast off the 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.880 blocks the platform swimmers jump off of at the start 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:15.440 of each trace. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.800 I don't think I've ever coached anyone as fast as 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:18.640 him in that section. 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.320 There's a lifeguard here too, manning the pool, clutching of floaty. 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:25.400 He's a student on the college swim team. 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:31.000 I'm okay, I'm not like, I'm not like fast like 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:32.319 those guys. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.880 He's also a full head shorter than all the enhanced athletes, 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.000 so I don't know how much his presence is actually needed. Still, 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.079 the lifeguard tells Sam he's happy to be there. He 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:44.240 says it's fun just to. 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:49.959 Watch, especially him. Ben Proud, Yeah, he's sick. He's a 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.599 really really good one. An he's on a top like 0:08:54.800 --> 0:09:01.599 fifty three salad, like everyone knows him, and he's just 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.640 crazy that he's swimming it. I don't know. He's my 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:05.560 favorite swimmer. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:11.880 Ben Proud was born to a pair of British expats 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:12.840 in nineteen ninety one. 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.520 Four months old, my family decided to move out to 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.760 Malaysia from London and I spent my whole childhood. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.839 There in Malaysia, Ben says, swimming is the culture. You're 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.760 always around water, always around a pool. His family had 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.079 one in their backyard, and so did all his friends. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.760 So my parents had me actually swimming like before my 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.120 second birthday. And yeah, I was one of these kids 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.040 at four or five, six years old. You just couldn't 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:40.959 get me out of the water. You know, I was 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:42.679 the youngest kid to join my school team and things 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:43.760 like this, and I loved it. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.880 Still, Ben says swimming didn't become his thing until he 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.880 was fifteen years old. There was this once when practice 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.920 where for some reason, nobody except for Ben and one 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.240 other teammate showed up. Still, the coach ran practice, and 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:00.600 since nobody else was there, he was able to give 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.080 Ben a lot more attention than usual. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.040 Yes, after the session he pulled me aside and was like, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.640 you know, you've got some talent like here that that's 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.880 not been realized, and I think if you work together 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.880 with me, we can do something special. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:14.240 Something. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.960 Ben told me it wasn't the Olympics that drove him. 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.400 He didn't especially care about the world stage stuff, the 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.839 bells and whistles. He just really really liked to swim fast. 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.559 Your mind takes a step back and just lets the 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.079 body function. The way I think about it, it's like 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.360 you have a greyhound. You have a pet greyhound, and 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.600 you send it down to the race, You watch it race, 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:36.880 and you're in this crowd just watching it go, like 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:38.520 fucking good dog. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.760 A few months later, he moved to England to join 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.280 one of the UK's best professional training programs at Plymouth College, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.360 far away from his family and almost entirely illiterate in 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.199 the world of lead sports. On his first day of training, 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:54.920 all he really knew was how to sprint. 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.920 And I rocked up to my first session in Plymouth. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:01.960 I didn't own any trunks. I just said bought shots 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.600 and I would never wear goggles. So I rocked off 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.400 as this complete amateur like, not knowing what's going to happen. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.240 In the years that followed, of course, everything changed. After 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.400 school ended, Ben relocated again, this time the Turkey with 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.120 a different pro swim club. He won gold at the 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.160 Commonwealth Games and the European Championships. He rapped Great Britain 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.560 at the twenty sixteen Olympics. He kept training, kept striving 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.559 to swim faster, and then in twenty twenty, in the 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.520 lead up to the Tokyo Games, covid hit, his club 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.559 shut down, his relationship with his girlfriend fell apart, and 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.400 Ben was forced to go back to England. He mostly 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.920 trained in isolation, living alone in a hotel room. When 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.240 it finally came time for the Tokyo Games, he came 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.320 in fifth, worse than he did in twenty sixteen, it. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.040 Was just a wave after wave of like, you know, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:55.600 disappointment or set back, just accumulated to this real desire 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.520 to like I have to have to prove something from 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.360 this Olympics, to show that all this is worth it, 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.720 and you feel like you fell short big time. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:06.160 big time. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.120 Still he kept training, he needed to be faster, and 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.599 finally at the twenty twenty four Olympics in Paris, it 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.640 paid off. At the fifty meter freestyle, US. 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.160 Got after that good start as expected, but they swimming 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:25.560 well in. 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.760 The middle of the pool, and that means Ben proud 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.439 and cam back a boy BACKA boy's down the relaie 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.040 fot looks like he's got the slop. 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.560 Ben took second place, a silver medal, not the fastest 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:39.480 swimmer in the world, but pretty fucking close, which he says, 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.360 that's all he was after at the end of the day. 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.000 He just wanted to be able to say I swam 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.080 the fastest I've ever swam, the fastest I ever will. 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.599 Paris was to me, like the pinnacle like that, to me, 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.240 that was career ending. 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.280 Some one did enhanced enter the picture for you, Like 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.280 what was your initial reaction to It. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.200 Was off the back of the two hour drug test. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.400 Drug testing in sports it isn't scheduled. That's the point 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.600 of course. If you know what's coming, maybe I'll cheat. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.440 On that particular morning, Ben had actually gotten up maybe 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.040 thirty minutes before the testers got there to go to 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.959 the bathroom, so when they showed up, they had to 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.199 wait for him to go again. As it happens, that 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.880 same morning was when Enhanced staged their world record stunt, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.600 when Christian Goldmie broke the record for the fifty meter freestyle, 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.680 which Ben learned about as soon as the drug testers left. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:37.760 Sound like for foxs sake, like can't can't start any worse. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.120 It was a rough morning for Ben. The time he'd 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.920 been chasing his whole life got smashed by a competitor 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.040 right after strangers showed up at his house at the 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.080 crack of dawn to watch him pee. 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.800 What Christian did by breaking that world record was split 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.800 my event fifty freestyle into these two separate categories. Now 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:02.680 where there's a clean there's the enhanced, and you, in theory, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.720 could be the world record holder. So if you were 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.480 to break the world record in traditional sport, you'd have 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.640 the world record but you wouldn't be the firstest man 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:11.080 in the water. 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.360 Ben Proud was about to turn thirty one. He just 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.840 finished the third Olympics of his career, which just to say, 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.360 is already more than the average Olympic swimmer makes it too. 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.360 And anyway, it wasn't gold that he was after. 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:24.520 It was speed. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.200 I didn't get into simming to earn money, like I've 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.360 got on swimming for for other reasons. But you get 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:34.640 to like your late twenties, early thirties, and suddenly money 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:40.080 is important. There was no pension scheme, no ability to 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.640 kind of like, you know, if we aren't above a 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.320 certain amount, you get money taken away. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.760 To that point, his entire adult life had been committed 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:53.280 to swimming. All of his time, his resources all funneled 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.480 into the Olympics, and that's when it hit him. His 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.240 career as a clean swimmer. 0:14:59.240 --> 0:14:59.800 It was ending. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.160 Sure, he was going out on a high note, second best, 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.240 the second fastest swimmer in the world. But on the 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.280 other side of that was a real problem. Who was 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.360 he without swimming and how was he going to make money. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.400 I have any degrees, I'm not academic. All I know 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.400 is swimming. That's one knows before. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.200 First, and very crucially, everyone competing in the Enhanced Games 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.360 would get paid a salary with benefits. On top of that, 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.200 they were offering a chance at a million dollars, real 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:36.000 life changing money. And they were offering something else too, 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.520 a chance to swim faster. Of course, to do it, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:45.440 he'd have to dope, and even then no guarantees, but 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.800 it was possible, and there would be doctors there paying 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.160 close attention. And anyway, like Ben said, his event, the 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.440 fifty meter freestyle was newly split into two categories, clean 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.800 and enhanced. If his clean days were over anyway, why 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:03.960 not keep chasing. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:04.320 The clock. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:14.160 Going to the back. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:15.680 It's cool, al right. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.240 So the next day Sam and I cram into an 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.840 suv at the residence in It's packed shoulder to shoulder 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.160 with coach Brett and five other swimmers, including Ben and Andre. 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.760 Smash next to these guys all over six feet tall, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.280 I feel dwarfed by them. We're headed back to nlv 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:35.120 IS Aquatic Center. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.280 Do you guys, You guys ever get like nervous before 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:39.880 I work out, just knowing it's going to kind of suck. 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:45.480 I'm nervous right now. He's the fifties to broken fifties. 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.040 Are broken fifties hard. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:52.840 Yeah, it's like you get twenty seconds rest, but that 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:54.240 twenty seconds doesn't do anything. 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.880 He's saying that twenty seconds of recovery in between sets 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.800 that barely does squat, especially when your heart is beating 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:02.600 out of your chest. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:04.560 Andre's feeling it too. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:09.480 So this morning we'll have the imitation of the race training. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:10.160 He explains. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.720 They'll be mimicking race conditions sprints basically, and practicing that 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.600 hard floods the muscles with lactic acid and other metabolic acids, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.160 bringing non intense fatigue. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:22.480 It's brutal by design. 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.280 The thinking goes that by pushing yourself beyond exhaustion, you'll 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:27.840 raise your own physical ceiling. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.680 Just a little bit, and in the moment, it just 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:32.359 really really sucks. 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.679 The first reaction, healthy reaction is just to throw a flash, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:36.879 and we are pushing. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:38.960 Just before the turn off to the school's parking lot 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.119 is the Excalibre, a medieval theme hotel and casino on 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.600 the strip, and next to that the Luxur built to 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.920 resemble a great pyramid of Giza. No matter where we went, 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.639 we could see the sphere. The immersive forty entertainment venue 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.120 claiming to be the wave of the future. It's also 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.040 where the Backstreet Boys had just played before. The guys 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.800 even head inside, they start to warm up, doing calisenics, 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.760 jumping jacks. One of them even shadow boxes for some reason. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.679 Then Brett says it's time to get in. 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:14.120 The pool, all right, even young boy. 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:28.040 Well, their workout is disgusting and just sprint after sprint 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:28.959 after sprint. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:30.359 What are you thinking about in the in between? 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:31.040 Just the. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:37.200 Just dig in like, dig in, do it like, don't 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:38.640 think about the pain, just like I've done. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:41.320 I should note that no one looks like they're having 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.119 a good time. The colors all drained out of their cheeks, 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:49.080 their's mouth breathing bacant eyes. Andre's face is buried off 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.280 in a pool gutter like he's about to hurl his 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.760 insides out. This kind of torture is not the province 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.879 of us normies. To the enhanced dudes, pukin is just 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.200 what happens on Tuesdays earlier in the van and here 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.520 in the pool. The guys all seem like teammates, like friends, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.439 but they're not not really, They're the competition. Every one 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.760 of them is an obstacle to the million dollar prize. 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.760 But for today anyway, everyone's in this together, just trying 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:28.520 to survive the workout. At the far end of the pool, 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:33.080 steadily swimming laps is Megan Romano, herself a former world champion. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:35.840 She had just signed on with the Enhanced Games two 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:36.400 months prior. 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.080 The first day, it was just it wasn't as bad 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.480 as I thought it was going to be, but the 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:47.960 sprinting definitely was a problem area. Now I just feel 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.480 really choppy, like I don't have that speedback. So if I'm. 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.399 Explained, Megan was the first woman to sign on for 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:58.560 the Enhanced Games. She's been retired since twenty sixteen, longer 0:19:58.600 --> 0:19:59.880 than anyone else competing. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:04.320 I'm coming off of nine years without doing anything swimming related, 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.159 so I need to build back up my base and 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.880 then work on like the tech. I mean, I'm working 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.840 on the technique now, but just like sprint, like sprint 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:13.200 every day, like what they're doing. 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:15.439 That's going to take me a minute until I can 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:15.720 do that. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.359 But when she was in her prime, Megan was a force. 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.760 Meghan is a six time Florida state swimming champion. She 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.160 now swims for the University of Georgia this year, Meghan 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:27.760 said in US and NCAA. 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.280 This is a news story from twenty twelve a local 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:32.160 station in Florida, where Megan is from. 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.760 Meghan has collected so many trophies, metals, and plaques over 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.639 the years that you'll find them in pretty much every 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:41.280 room of her parents' house. 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.440 Megan was the definition of a child prodigy, so good 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.399 she started competing for the United States at just thirteen 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.719 years old. By high school, swimming had really become her 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.480 singular focus. Classes were just something that happened in between 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:56.840 her training sessions at the pool. 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.399 I mean, like, yes, I was going to school, but 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.080 at the same time time my mind was, okay, what 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:03.400 are we doing today in practice? 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.160 After high school, Megan swam at the University of Georgia. 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.480 But when that was over, it's really. 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.320 Hard to go from competing as a team, trying to win. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.680 As a team, you have relays, So once you go 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.640 from that to just completely solo on your own, being 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.520 a professional, it's very hard. At least it was for me, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:35.359 So that transition was tough. I wasn't giving one hundred percent. 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.600 I was having like half fast days and I wasn't 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.640 taking it seriously and it almost felt like a chore 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:45.360 versus like trying to get better. It was just awful, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.040 like going to practice feeling like you didn't want to 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:53.119 be there, You're never excited for it, just knowing that 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:55.520