U.S. Olympic swimmer Lilly King served some highly chlorinated justice when she beat Russian competitor Yulia Efimova during the women’s 100m breaststroke for the gold medal Monday night. The two were competing in the final as distinct rivals. Efimova, for one, entered the aquatic arena last night to boos: She’s an athlete who was suspended for 16 months after testing positive for DHEA, a banned steroid hormone, in 2013, and earlier this year tested positive for meldonium, the drug you might recall got Maria Sharapova suspended for two years from tennis. And yet, after some back and forth from the IOC, Efimova was competing in the final, because meldonium was added to the list of banned substances soon after she had tested positive for it.
So King then did what the IOC didn’t do, which was to shame Efimova. When Efimova won her semifinal heat Sunday night and unironically shot her finger up to declare herself number one, King could be seen watching the monitors and wagging her index finger in return. She then later told NBC: “You’ve been caught for drug cheating. I’m just not a fan.”
