James Magnussen reveals training regime for next Enhanced Games after missing 50m freestyle world record

James Magnussen says he will change his training and doping regime for the Enhanced Games after narrowly missing out on breaking the 50m freestyle world record and the $1 million prize.

The retired Australian swimmer, whose “massive” physique made headlines, was beaten by Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev at the North Carolina event.

“Kristian cruises in after eight weeks of protocol. He gets up and bam, breaks the world record in the week that’s supposed to be about me breaking this world record,” Magnussen told the Hello Sport podcast.

“It was a really weird feeling, it was really mixed emotions. I love Kristian, he’s a great guy. He’s had a really tough life, lost both parents. That million dollars for him was completely life changing,” he said.

“It was more money that he’d ever made in his entire swimming career. So I was happy for him but that was meant to be me doing that. That was a hard moment.”

Magnussen, who has been using testosterone and peptides, said, “With my next preparation, I won’t be as big as I was. My doses were low to moderate, doctors have been like, ‘You can microdose that stuff’. You can microdose, get the same effects, get less size but still get the recovery and be able to train hard and have a much better for the actual games.”

He added, “Now I think I would prepare like a natural athlete and the protocol is just a cherry on top. It just gives you that extra bit. This time around, I’ll prepare and get myself in the best possible shape naturally and add that protocol on top, that extra couple of per cent that you need to go from world standard to fastest in history.”

Magnussen also described the challenges of finding a banned supersuit for his attempt: “We were scouring the world for a supersuit, we found one. We saved this, I tried the suit on the night before I race and the suit breaks at the thigh. The suits Kristian and I wear, they’re like an open water suit,” he said.

“The ones we wore were about 40 per cent polyurethane, basically it’s 40 per cent as good as the OG (original). The bigger the athlete, the more it helps. That was a big factor in me saying I can break the world record, I want one of these (suits). Now, leading into the actual Games. It doesn’t seem that hard to make.

“There’s no rules for these Games. Why can’t we go double, triple the thickness and really float a guy. I’m now looking into who can manufacture me one of these bad boys for the actual Games.”

Despite criticism from other top swimmers, Magnussen remains determined to compete at the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas next year, where the use of performance-enhancing substances is permitted under medical supervision.

“Other competitors will watch that and go ‘Oh he wasn’t that fast’,” he said. “I know how fast I was at different times in my preparation and I know what to do differently.”