Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- The American won the 100-meter breaststroke on Monday night, holding off the reigning world champion from Russian Federation in what some will surely call a victory of clean athletes over the dopers.
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RUSSIAN swimmer Yulia Efimova fought back tears as she responded to Lilly King’s comments that she should have been banned from the Rio Games.
She was joined by USA swimming legend Michael Phelps and other swimmers who have called for tougher action on the use of banned substances.
“We just have to be more on top of cleaning up the sport”, American Connor Dwywer said after claiming bronze behind China’s Sun Yang, who served a doping ban in 2014.
King wasn’t alone in thinking that her Olympic record-setting win against Efimova, twice caught for using banned substances, redefined the term moral victory. She studiously avoided any contact with Efimova. “It’s like I’m seeing athletics, with two or three dopers in every final”, Lacourt said.
“I once made mistakes and I was banned for 16 months”, she said.
Hosszu, known as the Iron Lady for her grueling schedule, took the women’s back in 58.45.
While the International Olympic Committee and its corporate sponsors are keen to make us believe that the Olympics are about peace, love, and understanding, those are just advertising terms that help sell Coca-Cola (how, I do not know).
Following the Richard McLaren report for the World Anti-Doping Agency, Efimova was suspended again. The male duo was cleared in a separate CAS appeal on Thursday.
The Russian may be content to move on, but others are less forgiving.
As the U.S. swimming team wins more gold at Rio, swim star Michael Phelps will have to prepare himself for the men’s 200m butterfly final, which he qualified for, but came in at second place of his heat.
After all the bad blood, all the debate over Yulia Efimova being allowed to swim at the Olympics, Lilly King was the one wearing gold.
I think people who are caught on doping offences should not be on the team. I felt I needed to perform tonight better than I have done in the past so that’s kind of where I was at.
Australian freestyler Mack Horton also was mad and he decided he was not going to take it anymore.
“Sun Yang, he p***** purple”, Lacourt told French radio after his race. “When I see the 200m podium I want to be sick”. “The last few weeks have been very hard, and I can’t remember the last time I had more than four hours of sleep”.
France’s Camille Lacourt, three-time backstroke world champion, joined the chorus after finishing fifth in the 100m backstroke final, urging the global federation, FINA, to act tough on dopers.
Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky, gold medal winners Sunday night, both advanced out of their semifinals Monday. China’s state-controlled Global Times newspaper called Australia a former British “offshore prison” because of Horton’s “drug cheat” remarks about Sun.
Lobintsev won silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a member of the Russian 4×200-meter freestyle relay, his lone event in Rio.
Swimming’s war of words overshadowed a day of competition that saw a first gold medal for the Brazilian hosts.
For Russia, her medal became the tenth one at the Rio Games. He also continued a streak of US dominance in the backstroke, which Americans have won in the past six summer Olympics. While the women are overwhelming favorites to win their second straight team gold, the men have slipped to the middle of the pack after winning team medals in both 2004 and 2008.
Japan’s “King Kohei” Uchimura led Japan to victory in the men’s team gymnastics, completing his collection of major titles in the sport.
World record holder Chen Lijun pulled out of the men’s weightlifting 62-kilogram class because of leg cramps, which opened the class for Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera of Colombia to win gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Thailand enjoyed a one-two in the women’s 58kg weightlifting as Sukanya Srisurat beat Pimsiri Sirikaew by 8kg.
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The Reitz High School graduate finished first in the finals of the 100-meter breaststroke Monday night in Rio.
