Lilly King is a 19-year-old American swimmer who won a gold medal in the women's 100-meter breaststroke in Rio this past week. In doing so, she beat "rival" Yulia Efimova, a Russian swimmer who was previously punished for using banned drugs, and more recently, was allowed to participate in the Rio Games despite having failed a drug test just a few months prior to the games. After the race, King refused to shake Efimova's hand or look at her during a press conference.
King has been hailed a hero by news outlets for calling out Efimova as a cheater, and she praised herself for "winning a gold medal...and doing it clean."
However, the facts of the cases are not quite as clean-cut as King makes them seem. Let's take a closer look at Efimova's life and her offenses. Efimova was born in war-torn Chechen capital of Grozny. However, she moved to Los Angeles when she was 19 and has lived in the United States for the past five years. She trains with University of Southern California coach Dave Solo, and has been with him since she was 19.
As for her drug offenses, she failed a drug test in 2013 after traces of the banned substance Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) were found in her system. How did she get the illegal drug? She went into her local GNC, a nutritional supplement store found in many shopping malls across the country, and purchased a hormone that her doctor recommended to her. Her English was poor, and she couldn't understand the label stating that the supplement contained DHEA. The International Swimming Federation deemed her offense unintentional, and she was given a 16-month ban from swimming (reduced from the normal two year sentence). Efimova accepted her punishment and served her sentence with no complaints, acknowledging that she had made a mistake and needed to pay the price.
Her most recent offense occurred this past March when she tested positive for the heart medication meldonium. This occurred during the controversy following the exposure of state-sponsored doping in Russia. Meldonium was in broad use by Eastern European athletes legally until the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited it in January 2016. This spring, WADA decided not to ban more than 200 athletes who tested positive for meldonium after the January ban, including Efimova, because it’s unknown how long it takes to clear the system of the drug. Therefore, it's very likely that she obeyed the WADA ban and stopped using the drug in January, but that the banned medication remained in her system.
By calling out Yulia Efimova as a cheater and a drug user, Lilly King is approaching a slippery slope. King needs to research her competitor and learn the facts of the cases before making such brash and rude comments. Instead of calling out another swimmer for her faults, King should focus on her own achievements. Winning a gold medal at only 19 is a huge achievement in and of itself.
Lilly King needs to remember that she is representing her country. By refusing to shake Efimova's hand or look at her after the race, King inadvertently showed the world that Americans are sore winners who do not learn the facts of a case before judging others. King is not a good sport and should not be hailed a hero for not even knowing many of the details of her claims.
