A new cold war broke out in the Olympic pool after the head of America’s anti-doping agency backed swimmers, including a British medallist, who suggested they were losing out to Russian rivals that might not be “clean”.
Travis Tygart, the chief of the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said the decision to allow more than 300 athletes from Russia to compete at the Tokyo Games despite the country serving a ban for industrial-scale doping was a “farce” and had placed the athletes under “a dark cloud” of suspicion.
The row started on Friday when the American swimmer and former Olympic champion Ryan Murphy, 26, came second in the 200m backstroke final behind Russian Evgeny Rylov, claiming that he was “swimming in a race that’s probably not clean”.
Rylov, 24, set an Olympic record of 1min 53.27sec to edge out Murphy for gold.
Luke Greenbank, 23, the British swimmer who won bronze in the race, also weighed in. “It’s a very difficult situation not knowing whether who you are racing against is clean.
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“There’s a lot of media around certain nations in this Olympics. Obviously it’s frustrating as an athlete, knowing that there was a state-sponsored doping programme going on and more could have been done to tackle it.”
Russia was banned in 2019 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) from all main sporting events for four years after manipulating laboratory data. The cover-up was exposed in part by The Sunday Times. The ban was shortened to two years by a court last December.
However, Russian athletes not implicated in the historic doping row have been granted permission to travel to Tokyo as neutrals. A total of 335, including Rylov, have been competing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which is currently fourth in the medals table, two places ahead of Britain.
Although the Russian flag and national anthem are banned, the athletes have been competing in red, white and blue kits — Russia’s colours — and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 has been played each time they make the podium.
Team GB athletes who have narrowly missed out on medals to Russian competitors include Helen Glover, the two-time Olympic rowing champion, and her partner Polly Swann, who came fourth in the final of the women’s coxless pairs.
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Rylov, who also won gold in the 100m backstroke race, responded to his detractors by stating: “I have always been for clean competition. I am always tested ... From the bottom of my heart, I am for clean sport.”
On Twitter, the ROC claimed that the American and British complaints were nothing more than sour grapes and that its team’s victories were “unnerving” rivals.
Tygart, the US anti-doping chief, hit back: “The Russian state and sports officials put the dark cloud over themselves and in the process, tragically, pushed their athletes out in the storm.
“Now these officials want to continue to lie, deny and attack those with the courage to stand up to their deceit and blatant disregard for the rules and the truth.”
Tygart blamed the Wada and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the continued participation of Russian athletes at the Tokyo Games.
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He said: “Unfortunately, we’ve seen this horror film already — where the Russian state-sponsored doping programme walks free and Russia wins, while the IOC and Wada leaders attempt to pull the wool over the world’s eyes by claiming Russia is ‘banned’.
“All can now see this ‘ban’ once again for the farce that it is.”
