Lilly King is a teen.
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Lilly King has her sights set on winning Olympic gold and she’s not about to let anyone get in her way, especially not world champion breaststroker Yulia Efimova of Russian Federation.
The doping disputes went beyond the pool when officials from Australia and China got involved. Unless you’re a hardcore swimming fan, probably not.
RIO DE JANEIRO Lilly King of the United States won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 100 meters breaststroke on Monday, denying Russia’s Yulia Efimova who was greeted with resounding boos from the Rio de Janeiro crowd.
King, a 19-year-old favourite from IN, had been frank IN the build-up to this evening’s showdown, admitting she is “just not a fan” of the Russian. King, watching on a TV feed in the arena, she wagged her finger at Efimova in righteous disapproval.
In the women’s sabre tournament, Muhammad, sporting a plain black Muslim head scarf under a red, white and blue mask, was a victor in her opening bout before bowing out.
And here’s the thing: King was right to take that stand. “You wave your finger “No. 1″ and you’ve been caught drug cheating?”
“I have to respect their decision even if it is not something I agree with”.
It was a bold statement, the kind you never hear from athletes in the heat of competition.
King swam a strong first 50 meters and led at the turn, with Efimova well back in fourth place.
Australia won the first gold medal for rugby sevens at the Olympics, beating archrival New Zealand 24-17 in the women’s final Monday night.
In an interview including questions about King’s words and other swimmers urging more to be done about doping in a sport that has always been contaminated by just that, US swimmer Cody Hill said, “During these Games, there will probably be people who miss the podium to people who probably don’t deserve to be on the podium”. After helping the USA win the 4×100-meter freestyle relay Sunday night, Phelps returned to the athletes’ village and chowed down. Neither appeared to acknowledge Efimova, who has twice been banned for doping and only secured her Rio place through the courts last week.
As she sat at the podium buffered from King by the subdued Meili, her words were hard to understand at times. And after she touched the wall for her silver medal finish, she was completely ignored by the athletes around her.
The 19-year-old University of IN swimmer has not been shy IN her criticism of Efimova, who also failed a test for meldonium earlier this year. Yet somehow global swimming officials found a way to let her compete.
Efimova, a four-time world champion initially barred from competing at the Rio Games because of a prior doping violation, was added to the event after an global court ruling on Thursday.
There was a surprise as Michael Phelps was beaten in his 200m butterfly semi-final by Hungary’s Tammas Kenderesi in a swift 1:53.96.
“It’s a victory for clean sport”, she said.
“What I don’t understand, athletes are out of politics, that was the tradition”, she said through a translator.
“I am very sad when I see my sport getting like this”.
In fact, Efimova had two incidents in her past.
When she saw her time, King pumped her fist into her own lane; then, a few seconds later, she thrashed her arm into Efimova’s lane, splashing water everywhere, before crossing over to her right to embrace teammate and bronze medalist Katie Meili. “But is she did wish to be congratulated by me, then I apologise”.
Efimova told reporters that she had not slept for the past month as she waited to learn whether she would be allowed to compete in Rio.
But Efimova along with two other USC-based Russian swimmers, Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, were cleared by an International Olympic Committee commission last week. Earlier this year she was banned after testing positive for meldonium.
She was then asked at a news conference if Gatlin, who also has two past offences, should be taking part in the Rio Games.
“Do I think somebody who has been caught for doping should be on the team?”
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“A week ago, I didn’t even know if I could race because I’m Russian”. “It should be set in stone. There should be no bouncing back and forth”.
