On December 15, Olympic medalist Cody Miller surprised everyone when he announced his return to competition just a year after retirement. Instead of coming back to traditional swimming, he chose the Enhanced Games, saying, “They’re paying me a lot of money.” But his decision raised a bigger question. If Miller could still compete at a high level, why step away from professional swimming? Was being a pro swimmer no longer enough? And that’s exactly what he explained recently.

On January 10, in an interview with Mel Stewart, founder of SwimSwam, Cody Miller revealed the harsh reality facing American swimmers today: “The main thing is it’s harder to make a living now as a professional swimmer than it has ever been before. The money has hardly gone up in the past 15 years, in terms of if you’re a national team member and you make APA. Everything is more expensive. There’s less resources. The prize money is not great. It’s just tough.”

To put that in perspective, at the Paris Olympics, U.S. swimmers earn about $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. At other major competitions like the World Aquatics Championships or World Cup circuits, top swimmers might earn anywhere from tens of thousands up to around $184,000 per event series, with some swimmers in the 2025 World Cup reportedly earning $140,000-$184,000.

Now compare that with the Enhanced Games. Each competition offers a $500,000 total purse, with $250,000 for first place. Breaking a world record of events like the 50m freestyle or the 100m sprint comes with a $1,000,000 bonus, and other records pay $250,000. For athletes, the difference is huge.

Cody Miller reflected on his challenges: “I graduated in 2014. I was broke. I had no money. I had two years to the Olympics and I was not the favorite to make a team. It was literally just a dream. And if that was me today, knowing what the resources are, what the landscape is, it would be infinitely harder than it was for me back then to….. make the Rio Olympics.”

After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in business management, Cody focused full-time on elite swimming. Even at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he won gold in the 4×100m medley relay and bronze in the 100m breaststroke, which brought him bonus payouts from the USOPC of about $25,000 for gold and $10,000 for bronze, modest sums compared to the costs of training and competing at that level.

Cody Miller has also been candid about the bigger financial reality of professional swimming. He shared, “There is substantially less money in the swimming market from major brands than there was 10 years ago. It’s dwindled. It’s just gone down. And the companies that are in the game they’re just paying less money.”

The 34-year-old understood this reality and decided to make his own way.

Cody Miller built another career to support himself beyond the pool

After making waves at the Olympics, Cody Miller took fans around the world in a whole new way. He launched a YouTube channel named “Cody Miller Adventures” in October 2017, sharing videos that showed viewers a look into training, a day in the life at the pool, behind-the-scenes at meets, and personal swimming tales.

He revealed recently how much work he puts into it: “I do the editing. I do the production. I do everything on my own. I’ve never had any employees or anything. And although I’m a small channel with just a few hundred thousand subscribers across different platforms, I was able to leverage that really well and be very successful. I’m very, very proud of that.”

So, for years, Cody Miller has effectively been working two full-time jobs, training and competing at the highest level while running his media projects. Over time, his channel grew, and by late 2025, it had 194,000 subscribers. But it all began just to make ends meet. However, Cody isn’t alone in recognizing the financial realities of the sport.

British swimmer Ben Proud, who also signed up for the Enhanced Games, acknowledged that money was a big part of why he joined:

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“There’s a huge financial incentive with this, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t matter. It would take me 13 years of winning world championship titles just to earn what I can win at one competition at the Enhanced Games… it gives me the opportunity to earn that sort of money and setting myself up, my family, and supporting my mum.”

Both Cody Miller and Ben’s choices show a harsh reality that pro-swimmers often face.