United States’ Lilly King, left, and Russia’s Yulia Efimova compete in the final of the women’s 100-meter breaststroke during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.
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American 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.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – A wagging finger. And the dispute between King and Efimova was expected to grow as the two competed for a medal Monday night.
A smattering of boos greeted Efimova after she won her preliminary heat Sunday. The Americans’ last loss in the 100 back came at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
As she sat at the podium buffered from King by the subdued Meili, her words were hard to understand at times.
King was not happy about the upshot saying, “Ya know, you’re shaking your finger number one and you’ve been caught for drug cheating”. “And I’m not a spaghetti fan but I forced myself to eat it”.
And then she backed it up with a swim for the gold. Having already won gold in the 1,500 free in London in 2012, he became the first man in history to claim Olympic titles at both distances.
“I do think it’s a victory for clean sport to show you can do it after competing clean all your life”, King said.
Efimova hung on the rope separating their lanes in the middle of the pool, but King took off in the other direction to congratulate Meili. She’s also part of a Russian national team that’s undergone great scrutiny following the uncovering of a massive state-sponsored doping scandal.
Yet there she was in the pool, trying desperately to overcome King’s early lead. This time, she struggled just to qualify for two individual events and it looks like her only realistic shot at a medal will be on the 4×200 free relay.
The source of the feud is a suspension handed down to Efimova, with rather severe actions and punishment- she missed 16 months for doping, and tested positive this year for the now-banned substance meldonium. Yet somehow worldwide swimming officials found a way to let her compete.
At the weekend, Sun was involved in a spat with Australian swimmer Mack Horton – who was angry that his rival was competing despite serving a doping ban in secret in 2014, news of which was only announced in China retrospectively.
Michael Phelps has seen the same kind of thing.
But she seemed to catalogue other now accepted performance-enhancers and the idea of suddenly having them made illegal and turned toward King and said, “And this (would be) your fault?”
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”. “I think she’s right, I think something needs to be done”.
“I am very sad when I see my sport getting like this”.
Before leaving the pool side, King patted Efimova’s back while the Russian’s broke down crying into the arms of a friend.
Then she promptly sprawled a few lanes over to hug US teammate Katie Meili, the bronze-medalist. So if she was wishing to be congratulated, I apologize.
Also notable was the failure of King to congratulate Efimova, whom she basically ignored before and after the event.
“I’m like last four years training in the U.S.”, said Efimova, who has trained in southern California. While the Russian track and field team was banned from the games, most of the country’s other athletes were allowed to attend, including some who have had positive doping tests.
King was the Hoosier-next-door heroine, unafraid to call out the dirty athletes who destroy the wonder and drama of sports.
Is there room in any sport for an athlete who has been caught doping?
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“I’d like to give the swimmer the benefit of the doubt that she had tested positive and served her ban and hopefully that scared her enough to be clean”, Coventry said.
