Australian coach Brett Hawke and swimmer James Magnussen face global bans for their involvement in the drug-friendly Enhanced Games.
Hawke and Magnussen are in the crosshairs of World Aquatics, which has enacted a new law giving swimming’s global body power to ban anyone associated with Enhanced Games.
Australia’s triple Olympic medallist Magnussen was the first athlete to commit to competing at the inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas in May next year.
And dual Olympian Hawke has been appointed Enhanced Games’ swim coach.
The pair face World Aquatics bans under a fresh by-law ratified by swimming’s global governing body on Wednesday.
“Those who enable doped sport are not welcome at World Aquatics or our events,” World Aquatics president Husain Al Musallam said in a statement.
“This new by-law ensures that we can continue to protect the integrity of our competitions, the health and safety of our athletes, and the credibility of the global aquatics community.”
Al Musallam urged national federations, including Swimming Australia, to enact similar laws.
The World Aquatics by-law is effectively a catch-all covering “any individual who supports, endorses or participates in sporting events that embrace the use of scientific advancements or other practices that may include prohibited substances and/or prohibited methods”.
“(They) will not be eligible to hold positions with World Aquatics or to participate in any World Aquatics competitions, events or other activities. This ineligibility would apply to roles such as athlete, coach, team official, administrator, medical support staff or government representative,” it said.
Any ban is unlikely to effect Magnussen, who retired from competitive swimming after the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
The dual 100m freestyle world champion came out of retirement to compete at Enhanced Games, an event supporting the use of performance-enhancing drugs to feature swimming, athletics and weightlifting.
But it could impact Hawke, who has been coaching in the US since 2006.
Enhanced Games was officially launched last month by Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza, who has backing from multi-billionaires and a family company of US president Donald Trump.
D’Souza will soon respond to World Aquatics’ move, while Hawke forecast some backlash when at the Enhanced Games’ launch in Las Vegas last month.
“You’d be silly not to think that people aren’t going to be opposed to it,” Hawke told AAP on May 21.
“But we’re outside the scope of the Olympic Games and World Aquatics, we’re not competing in that space.
“I would never want an athlete to participate at the Olympic Games and be cheating and, unfortunately, I think that is happening in this day and age.”
Hawke has already started coaching Magnussen and the second athlete to sign for Enhanced Games, Greece’s four-time Olympic freestyler Kristian Gkolomeev.
The pair swam timed 50m freestyle races while on performance-enhancing drugs in February in the US.
Gkolomeev clocked 20.89 seconds, bettering the 50m freestyle world record of 20.91 set by Brazil’s Cesar Cilio when coached by Hawke in 2009, to collect $US1 million offered by Enhanced Games for anyone breaking the legal benchmark.
Ukraine’s 50m butterfly world record-holder Andriy Govorov and Bulgarian butterflier Josif Miladino are other confirmed athletes for Enhanced Games, with further signings to be announced.
