Lilly King was spotted mocking Yulia Efimova, a Russian swimmer who had been caught doping multiple times.
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But in the end, the American was just too strong, taking the gold with a time of 1:04:93, just 0.57 seconds ahead of her Russian counterpart. “I just show up and compete”.
“As an athlete you. always want to compete against the best”, USA rival Devon Allen told reporters.
“I’m actually glad I made a statement and I ended up coming out on top in the race”, King said. “I think something needs to be done”, said Phelps. The mere sight of Efimova holding up a No. 1 sign with her finger on television irked King, who wagged her finger back at the image on the screen.
“If she was wishing to be congratulated I apologize”.
The issue of doping overshadowed the build-up to the Olympics and, far from dying down since they opened on Friday, has escalated as swimmers like King and Australian freestyle champion Mack Horton have directly branded rivals as cheats. She did so minutes after Phelps won his fourth gold medal of the games and his 22nd gold overall. “There is a way to become the best and do it the right way”.
“I am very sad to see how my sport is evolving”.
Over in the women’s division, King pointed out Sunday that Russia’s Efimova had failed two blood tests. “Cheaters are cheaters”, she said.
Yefimova tested positive for an endogenous steroid hormone that was banned in professional sports in 2014. Efimova hung on the lane divider, catching her breath, her taunting finger at rest.
But after the crowd booed her as she stepped onto the podium and a fellow athlete waggled her finger at her for coming second, she chose to hit out at critics, saying it was all down to a new propaganda war from the West.
In one of the biggest grudge matches in the ongoing 2016 Rio Olympics, American swimmer Lily King managed to beat her biggest rival, Russia’s Yulia Efimova, earning a gold medal in the 100-meter-breaststroke event on Monday.
Read that here for Efimova’s emotional plea to be accepted in Rio. Efimova appealed the decision, and she was eventually allowed to compete.
“I really don’t know how I even reached the final”. All athletes should be above politics, but they just watch TV and believe everything they read.
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“But on the other hand, I don’t understand, because it always used to be that all athletes were above politics. Why start it again, by using sport?”
