American swimmer Lilly King implies Russians 'should not be here' at Olympics because of doping

Lilly King takes aim at Russians: 'There are a lot of people here that should not be here.'

 King implies Russians 'should not be here' at Olympics because of doping 

By Edward Era Barbacena

TOKYO —  The old 'cold war'  is being revived again at the pool between the Russians and Americans after a swimmers of the former Soviet union made a swift victory beating the proud rivals from the United States, hence, doping issues was weaponized by the Americans to take on the Russians.

American swimmer Lilly King doubled down on criticism of Russian athletes hours after the president of the Russian Olympic Committee said his teams’ medals are the “best answer” to critics who questioned why the country is allowed to compete following doping scandals.

King, always willing to sound off on doping, made known her thoughts on some "people here who shouldn’t be here" on Sunday.

“There are a lot of people here that should not be here,” said King, who won a silver and a bronze medal in Tokyo.

Lilly King had plenty of thoughts on a Tokyo Games in which the Russian Olympic Committee, fresh off a recently-lifted doping ban, won its most swimming medals since 1996

Bold and outspoken?: Yes, but Lilly King proves to be gracious in Olympics defeat. “I wasn’t racing anyone from a country who should have been banned and instead got a slap on the wrist and rebranded their national flag,” she said. “So, I personally wasn’t as affected. But Ryan was.”

The topic of doping came up at a press conference Sunday night involving King and fellow United States swimmers Ryan Murphy, Regan Smith and Bobby Finke. This was a reprise of a brushfire from a few days ago involving Murphy, the reigning Olympic champion in both backstroke events who was defeated in both by Russian rivals. Murphy was asked about doping in swimming in general, and he responded that, “It is a huge mental drain on me to go throughout the year knowing that I’m in a race that probably isn’t clean.”

King made her statements seated next to Ryan Murphy, another U.S. swimmer who seemed to take aim this week at a country that has repeatedly run afoul of doping rules.

Ryan Murphy bemoaned Friday that his races were “probably not clean” after taking the silver medal behind Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov in the 200-meter backstroke. 

Murphy later said his comments weren’t aimed at the Russians specifically. King was more direct.

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For his part, Murphy reinforced that he was not pointing fingers at any individuals or specific countries with his original comments. He said that his opinion was formed by information from Travis Tygart of the U.S. Anti-Doping Association and Brant Nowicki, a FINA executive who previously worked with the Court of Arbitration in Sport. Murphy said both men have stated that there is a doping issue that international swimming has to address.

Bold and outspoken?: Yes, but Lilly King proves to be gracious in Olympics defeat

“I wasn’t racing anyone from a country who should have been banned and instead got a slap on the wrist and rebranded their national flag,” she said. “So, I personally wasn’t as affected. But Ryan was.”

Her comments came hours after ROC president Stanislav Pozdnyakov said critics “supposed that as a matter of fact our athletes can’t compete without doping,” but that Russian athletes in Tokyo “proved the opposite not just with words but with their deeds and results.”

Russia was revealed to have launched a massive, state-sponsored program to elude testers ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. It has sent depleted squads to the last two Olympics as punishment.

The country’s name, flag and anthem have been banned from the Olympics and other major sports events following a legal battle with the World Anti-Doping Agency. After competing under the moniker OAR — Olympic Athletes From Russia — at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, it has competed as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in Japan.

Russian athletes have won 40 medals in Tokyo, 11 of them gold.

Murphy bemoaned Friday that his races were “probably not clean” after taking the silver medal behind Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov in the 200-meter backstroke. That came three days after he finished behind Rylov and another Russian, Kliment Kolesnikov, in the 100 back.

He said Saturday the comment wasn’t targeted at Rylov but was instead intended to address suspicions of doping throughout the sport.

“I think things were definitely, they were definitely taken a little bit differently than what the question I was asked intended,” he said. “I was asked a question about doping and swimming and I answered honestly. I do think there’s doping in swimming.”