Before this week, I had never heard of Cody Miller. Even if you’re a sports fan, you probably hadn’t heard of him either.
That’s because he’s a former Olympic champion swimmer that isn’t Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, so he has largely flown, and swum, far under the radar of our general sports consciousness.
That changed Sunday, May 24.
That’s when Miller popped a bunch of pills, took an anabolic steroid, won two breaststroke events by enhancing the bejeezus out of himself at the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas – AKA the Steroid Olympics – and earned $500,000 in prize money.
The rebuke was swift and strong from just about every corner of the sports world. One of the first comments on his own Facebook post touting the Enhanced Games came from a woman who wrote: “My daughter is a young swimmer and is disgusted by this path. … Invest the $ you’re making because who knows what long term consequences the drugs will have on your health.”
Even the stock market couldn’t stomach the stench of the Enhanced Games, whose parent company is publicly traded and saw its value immediately sink faster than Miller’s reputation, dropping 43% when the week’s first closing bell rang Tuesday afternoon on Wall Street.
Even though another swimmer broke a world record – and no, I won’t dignify his “achievement” by citing his name – Miller was largely the face of the Enhanced Games because he’s a charismatic influencer with a large social-media following.
And that’s exactly the problem with Miller’s participation in the event. He influences people. He influences children. Being financially rewarded for using steroids not only normalizes his decision but also condones and exalts the practice in the minds of impressionable young athletes. That makes him dangerous because his carefully curated cybersphere persona belies his true nature. And that makes him everything that’s wrong with sports right now.
“I would say that it’s problematic and it’s a significant growing public health concern, not only in competitive athletes, with much of the media attention focusing on those stories, but also in recreational athletes at your local gym and even high school student athletes,” Derek Stokes, assistant professor and sports medicine physician at Colorado University School of Medicine, said of performance-enhancing drugs in a June 2025 university publication.
In 2025, before it was revealed he would participate in the Enhanced Games, Miller conducted three clinics for swim clubs in Michigan. The clinics included one for high school swimmers and one for younger swimmers in the Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics Club at the Holland Aquatic Center. He arrived with his gold medal and showed it to young swimmers.
“Seeing the kids get excited to hold it is really cool,” he told the Holland Sentinel. “And seeing them stand on the blocks with me is really cool because I remember doing that and being terrified.”
In that moment, Miller was more than just a swimmer and an athlete. He was a role model to those kids, influencing and encouraging them to literally follow in his footsteps. I can’t imagine what those parents must think now.
Organizers of the Holland clinic were unavailable for comment. Miller and his talent agency did not respond to interview requests.
‘Dangerous clown show’
No one illustrated the dangers of the Enhanced Games and its stated mission to “push the boundaries of human performance” – while also selling injectable testosterone and other pricey enhancements on its website – than Travis Tygart. He’s the chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency who’s best known for exposing Lance Armstrong’s doping.
“While those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck,” Tygart said on the USADA’s site in January 2025, “that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams.
“We desperately wish this investment was being made in the athletes who are currently training and competing the real and safe way. They are the role models this world so desperately needs and they are the ones who deserve our support – not some dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.”
That’s not only what the Enhanced Games did, but it’s exactly what Miller proudly tried to defend by swaddling his decision and his money in a blanket of righteousness.
“That’s going to be invested in my kids’ future, that’s for sure,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday. “I’m not going to blow it tonight on red, don’t worry.”
The true cost of all that money
The irony clearly didn’t resonate with Miller that he had just done exactly that by gambling with the reputation he earned at the 2016 Rio Games, where he won a bronze medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and was part of the 400-meter relay with Phelps that won gold.
That success, plus his personality, is why he has nearly 350,000 combined followers on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. It’s why he’s been able to make money via clinics and appearances. And it’s why the Enhanced Games wanted him.
“There is a lot of stress now on swimmers who don’t have a strong social media following to be fast all the time, because if you aren’t, you don’t make funding,” Miller told the Sentinel. “I was lucky to have more sponsors than other swimmers because of my YouTube channel. It was able to provide for me and my family.”
But who’s going to want him now? Which sponsors are going to line up behind a steroid user? Who’s going to ask Miller to speak to their swim group and especially to their impressionable young athletes?
Miller likely doesn’t realize this, but the money he won actually came at the great expense of his reputation and his credibility. He will soon find out that’s something he can never buy back or convince his followers that he deserves to have restored.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Steroid-using Cody Miller is everything that’s wrong with sports
Reporting by Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
