American Embarrassment in Rio

Lilly King is a fantastic swimmer. At the ripe old age of 19, she just won gold in Rio in the 100-meter breaststroke. Further cementing American dominance in swimming so far in these Summer Games.

Her age shows in her speed and ferocity in the pool. Sadly however, it as also shown in her behavior outside of the pool as well through her remarks and treatment of silver-medal winning Russian swimmer, Yulia Efimova. As a fellow American, I personally find her behavior embarrassing.

Ms. Efimova has been cited twice for doping violations in her swimming career, earning her spite and resentment from the swimming community at large. When you look deeper into these violations, there is more to meet the eye. The first game from a purchase in Los Angeles back in 2013 at a local GNC. An over the counter purchase from a Russian teen who barely spoke English, likely not checking or fully understanding the contents. But lets assume she did. She served a 16 month suspension, a punishment fit for the crime. Her second came more recently this year, when she tested positive for a substance that was only just prohibited a couple months before her test. Most likely, she took it prior to its ban and it remained in her system, a common case, and one she has stood behind.

The massive Russian doping scandal overall has certainly not helped her cause. Nor does our country’s seemingly insane insistence on holding onto the Cold War and resenting those of Russian decent. Most cite 1991 as the final year of the Cold War, 6 YEARS before Lilly King was born! And if we hold Putin and all his ridiculousness over Russian heads as a reason to call them the ‘bad guys’, well my friends, we have a certain presidential candidate right now who makes Putin look like Gandhi.

To add to that, Efimova grew up in the war-torn town of Grozny, and had to deal with the war-like rigor of the Russian swim program. Lilly King? Evansville, Indiana. I mean, I hear they don’t have great coffee in Evansville. #thestruggleisreal

Efimova knew that coming to Rio and competing would be hard. That nobody would believe her story, give her a chance, or do anything put point fingers. Yet despite all that, she not only came and competed, she won herself a Silver medal with possibly more to come. NOBODY in Rio feels more isolated and alone right now than Efimova. I can’t put into words the courage it must take to do what she’s doing.

And here we have Lilly King. An amazing talent who should be celebrating her victory and taking pride in her tremendous individual accomplishment, but instead, is splashing water at Efimova like a child and using her podium as a vehicle to further demean this poor woman.

I am a proud American. I love this country. I am rooting for Lilly and all our American athletes in Rio. But you know what? We are so fucking embarrassing sometimes. We are an entitled, elitist bunch who doesn’t know what real struggle is. Real courage is getting knocked down and jumping right back up. Whether her 2nd violation was valid or not, that supplement is clearly no longer at play in her system, and not giving her any form of competitive advantage in these games. Lost in all this is how damn hard it is to even make an Olympic team, let alone win a silver medal in an individual competition. And to do all that with the emotional weight Efimova’s been dealing with? Honestly amazing.

Cheers to you Efimova. I hope you read this and know that you are not alone, that even some of us snobby-ass Americans are in your corner. As for Lilly, please remember you are representing your country out there. You are the face of this nation right now because of your athletic prowess and ability. Think about that next time you decide to be a bully in the playground.