Cam McEvoy has laughed off the Enhanced Games as nothing more than marketing, after athletes openly using banned substances failed to break his world record in the 50m freestyle.

Speaking at the Australian swimming trials in Brisbane on Wednesday night, the reigning Olympic and world champion didn't hold back. "It's like someone putting fins on and doing a 50 freestyle," he said. "It's an exhibition swim, very much outside the scope that is regular sport. It's marketing, so to speak."

The inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas last month saw competitors swim, run and lift weights while pumped full of peptides and testosterone. Organisers claimed Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev had "broken" McEvoy's world record when he clocked 20.81 seconds in the 50m freestyle — but that came with a supersuit banned from regular competition and a cocktail of drugs in his system.

McEvoy, who lowered the official world record to 20.88 seconds in March as a clean athlete, pointed out that Gkolomeev was the only swimmer across the entire event to post a time faster than an official world record. "Across the sports, they didn't have the top people there. It brought in a lot of views, it dominated the algorithm for a little bit of time, but largely the world of sport will move on. It is what it is," he said.

What's really bugging McEvoy is the knock-on effect on public trust. "One thing I am disappointed in is that there was a lot of erosion of public confidence in the response to the Enhanced results when people outside of sport make conclusions like, oh, they didn't break the records. It's a lot more nuanced than that," he said.

McEvoy's former Australian teammate James Magnussen finished dead last in both the 50m and 100m freestyle at the Enhanced Games. The 35-year-old's 50m time of 22.35 seconds would have left him in last place at Wednesday night's Australian trials final, well behind McEvoy's winning 21.32.

Meanwhile, the depth in Australian sprinting is ridiculous. Jamie Jack — brother of Olympian Shayna Jack — qualified for his first Australian team with a second-place finish in 21.52. The 18-year-old Sydneysider burst into tears after FaceTiming his sister, who was resting at a nearby hotel ahead of her own races. "I just started bawling my eyes out," Jack said. "She just said how proud she is of me."

Flynn Southam (21.72), Ollie Moclair (21.79), Ben Armbruster (21.80), Isaac Cooper (21.90) and Tom Nowakowski (22.06) all posted times faster than Magnussen's Vegas swim. McEvoy reckons the future is bright: "By Brisbane our 50s are going to be a powerhouse."

Gkolomeev's payday was massive — $US1.5 million ($2.1 million) for 67 seconds of racing, including a $US1 million bonus for the supposed world record. McEvoy, who earned a fraction of that for his genuine world record, was asked if he would have gone faster in a supersuit. "I've done a 25 [metre race] with that suit [in practice] and it was significantly faster with the suit than without," he said. "I was too young and tiny to wear them in 2009 [before they were banned], but yeah, I'll leave it at that."

The Enhanced Games have also reignited the debate about athlete pay. IOC president Kirsty Coventry recently said she doesn't believe in paying prizemoney at the Olympics because it would only benefit a small number of athletes. McEvoy fired back on social media, proposing a model with a $10,000 appearance fee and medal bonuses of $100,000, $60,000 and $25,000 for gold, silver and bronze — totalling around $180 million.