The Americans won two golds on Sunday – Katie Ledecky in a world record, Michael Phelps in a stirring relay upset – and two more on Monday.
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The specter of Russia’s state-sponsored doping scandal hangs over the pool. Also in the opening threesome: Graham DeLaet of Canada, a country IGF President Peter Dawson called the defending champ – George Lyon of Canada won the gold medal at the St. Louis Games in 1904. Neither FINA nor the International Olympic Committee has responded to questions about the reversal or how they determined the swimmers were eligible for the Games.
But she was far from the only controversial athlete to attract attention on another dramatic night in the pool.
“They can’t imagine what it would feel like to change places with me”.
“Right now I’m really happy after all the stuff that has happened because I’m here racing”, the 24-year-old said. Yulia Efimova shouldn’t have been in Rio at all, left to dangle as the symbol of a failed system.
The 19-year-old from Evansville, Ind., has been outspoken in her feelings about Efimova’s late inclusion in the Olympics.
The struggle to compose and express herself led Efimova to begin speaking in Russian at one stage, when her criticism of King’s stance was more pointed. The comments turned King into an overnight hero on social media – and transformed the race into a heated contest between opposing views of how the sport should be managed. Miller tweeted a few minutes before the final.
Ryan Murphy gave the Americans their sixth straight gold medal in the event, rallying on the return lap to win with a time of 51.97 seconds Monday night at the Rio Olympics.
King beat Efimova by more than a half-second – an eternity in the race – to capture the gold medal and set an Olympic record.
After the victory ceremony, the two Americans wrapped themselves together in the Stars and Stripes flag, while Efimova stood awkwardly to the side.
Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, twice banned for doping in the past, had a tearful day at the blocks today after she medalled in second position behind “arch nemesis” Lilly King of the USA.
Two other Russians who were part of the banned, then reinstated, group – Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev – also train with the club.
Efimova, the reigning world champion, was introduced to a chorus of boos and whistles, and the reception appeared to rattle her. After months of dire predictions from overseas about the mosquito-borne Zika virus, some locals are doing some stinging of their own: They’re jeering US athletes and taunting them over the fears that kept some competitors away from South America’s first Olympics.
You have someone whose English was – and remains – not great, who when she bought a tainted supplement at GNC was in her early 20s, who relied on a friendly American clerk to help her – and now she’s depicted as a world-class villain? They have signs all over the (Athletes Village) saying we are a clean sport, and it’s not.
The most decorated Olympian of all time joined the fray, too.
“I once made a mistake and served my ban”, she said, referring to a 16-month suspension incurred after testing positive for a banned steroid in 2014. “It kind of breaks what sport is meant to be and that’s what pisses me off”. If I do need to stir it up to put a little fire under my butt or anybody else’s, then that’s what I’m going to do.
King and Meili, who finished third to earn the bronze medal, threw their arms around each other in the pool and again at the medal presentation.
American Kathleen Baker was second in 58.75, just one one-hundredth of a second in front of China’s Fu Yuanhui and Canadian Kylie Masse, who shared bronze in 58.76.
It was in contrast to the celebrations of China’s Sun Yang, another swimmer targeted by his peers for past drugs transgressions. He’s been feuding with Mack Horton since the Games started.
“You know, you’re shaking your finger number one and you’ve been caught for drug cheating”, said King in an NBC interview after the semifinals.
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Not long after King vanquished Efimova, U.S. breaststroker Josh Prenot tweeted: “All is right with the world”.
