No doubt, that was Lilly King’s take.
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Rio de Janeiro, Aug 9: American swimmer Lilly King has apologised to Russia’s Yulia Efimova for not congratulating her on winning a silver medal in the women’s 100 metres breaststroke at the Rio Olympics. You know I think [King] is right. 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.
She won the race with a time of 1:04.93, 57 seconds ahead of Efimova. Efimova took silver and American teammate Katie Meili won bronze. King has been especially critical of Efimova, who was approved for competition in Rio just hours before being scheduled to swim. She also levelled her sights at her fellow Team USA athletes, such as Justin Gatlin, who had been caught doping in the past. However, Efimova successfully appealed her case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
While King has made headlines by saying she’s not a sweet girl and will speak her mind, Efimova is doing her best to stay afloat and tell her side of the story as well.
“The second time was not my mistake”.
Prior to the race, King publicly criticised the decision to allow Efimova to compete in Rio.
“I think it just proved that you can compete clean and still come out on top”, King said of her win, after earlier criticising Efimova.
He said the situation now was similar to the past “when we had the situation with the Cold War and everything was like Russian Federation (versus) America and a lot of people were putting oil on the flame to make it higher”.
She has been booed every time she has appeared poolside in Rio.
“I am just happy to be here”. “He said what everyone was thinking and I also said what everyone was thinking”.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu became the first two-time gold medalist at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, adding the women’s 100 backstroke title to her world-record victory in the 400 individual medley. Le Clos beat Phelps in the 200 fly in the 2012 London Olympics. He also continued a streak of US dominance in the backstroke, which Americans have won in the past six summer Olympics.
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King’s victory gives the US five gold medals, tying China for first.
