Don’t expect Lilly King to show much sympathy for rival Yulia Efimova, despite the Russian’s tearful breakdown earlier this week.
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Russian Olympic swimmer Yulia Efimova escalated the controversy around her to infinite heights Thursday night, mainly by dragging Michael Phelps into it. “It was so incredible, winning a gold medal and knowing I did it clean”, she later pronounced after her victory.
Ms Efimova added: “I would really like to encourage my fellow athletes to understand my problems and not let politics into it. If Wada say tomorrow they are banning yogurt or animal protein or stuff that other people use and they ban this and you stop, [what happens next?] This comes out of your body for six months and if doping control come after two months and it is still in your body, is this your fault?” When they touched the wall, the Russian, who served a 16-month suspension for doping, won a silver medal, coming in second to the 19-year-old American.
“Then what would she say about Michael Phelps?”
The day before she had wagged her finger from just off the pool deck to a televised shot of Efimova celebrating her win in a semifinal heat. And now we have the potential for a GIF so versatile, so applicable to such a broad array of scenarios that it’s worth the International Olympic Committee lifting the ban on Olympic GIFs for the dissemination of this moment alone.
In a somewhat awkward press conference after winning gold on Monday, with Efimova sitting by her, King said that she stood by her statements about Efimova and doping. “I’m just not a fan”, King told NBC’s Michele Tafoya on Sunday before the two were to compete in the Women’s 100-meter breaststroke. “I think she’s right, I think something needs to be done”.
“I’ve cried a lot of tears tonight”, she wrote. She was serving a provisional ban after testing positive for meldonium, though this was lifted on the eve of the games, since the World Anti-Doping Agency ruled she had stopped taking the drug before it became illegal at the start of 2016.
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That didn’t sit well with King, who doesn’t compromise on the issue. “I’m not this sweet little girl, that’s not who I am”. Asked if USA sprinter Justin Gatlin should be on the team after two drug suspensions, she didn’t back off. “There should not be any bouncing back and forth”.
