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| U.S. swimmer Lily King/Net |
#Tokyo2020 The Silver and Bronze Medal-winning United States swimmer at the Tokyo Olympics, Lilly King, has drawn scathing criticism from Russian athletes.
He said Russian athletes should not be at the Olympics given the doping scandal that once doped the country.
"There are a lot of people here who shouldn't be here," King said, as quoted from 9News, Monday (2/8).
King's remarks doubled down on criticism from Ryan Murphy, another U.S. swimmer who this week appeared to be taking aim at a country that has repeatedly broken doping rules.
"I'm not racing with anyone from a country that should be banned and instead get slapped and renamed their national flag," he said, referring to the banning of Russian names at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"So, I personally am not affected. But Ryan," he said.
Earlier Murphy complained on Friday that the race he was in was 'probably not clean' after only winning a silver medal behind Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov in the 200-meter backstroke. It came three days after he finished behind Rylov and another Russian player, Kliment Kolesnikov, in 100th place.
However, later Murphy said on Saturday (31/7), that the comment was not directed at Rylov but was intended to address suspicions of doping throughout the sport.
"I think everything is for sure, they must have been taken a little differently from the questions I asked," he said.
"I was asked questions about doping and swimming and I answered honestly. I think there's doping in swimming," Murphy continued.
Russia was revealed to have cheated by launching a massive state-sponsored program to avoid doping testing ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. As punishment, the country was banned from using the country's name, flag and national anthem at Olympic events and other major sporting events after its case was dragged legally to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
To date Russia has won 44 medals in Tokyo, 12 of them gold. (bnj)