Yulia Efimova questions Michael Phelps’ Olympics status

But King was joined in the war of words by USA legend Michael Phelps and Frenchman Camille Lacourt among others who lashed out at a Chinese victor.

Exhausted of PED abuse clouding the waters of her sport, King chose to make waves.

King, 19, set an Olympic record with her time of 1 minute, 4:93 seconds in the final swim.

And this could be why veteran Olympians like Michael Phelps, who was competing in his 5th Olympic Games in Rio, were frustrated by the lack of progress.

When asked if USA athletes who have fallen foul of the drug testers, such as sprinters Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, deserved to be in Rio, King, 19, pulled no punches. “She had a fantastic swim”, King said at a press conference afterward where Efimova tried to defend herself against the doping charges.

When she was 12, Lilly told her parents that she was going to win 50-yard breaststroke at the IL state championship, even though she had finished close to last in the race the previous year.

Yulia Efimova made a weird comparison to try to hush her critics. King beat Efimova for a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke the next night. While the 22-time Olympic gold medalist’s actions were wrong, he didn’t attempt to unfairly get an advantage on the competition.

“I think the whole atmosphere is very unusual”, said Salnikov, president of the Russian Swimming Federation, who won four swimming gold medals in the 1980s during a period of U.S.

Relations between the sporting superpowers have been tense since United States calls for the entire Russian team to be banned from Rio following allegations of government-backed doping.

Efimova served a 16-month suspension for doping from late 2013 to February 2015 and also failed a test for meldonium earlier this year (only for the result to be later overturned).

“I understand the people who didn’t congratulate me because the media was full of fake stories about me”, said Efimova, apparently referring to the snub by King and Meili after the final. Dee is an “aspiring” actress bird and always has a fresh new character to add to her acting repertoire. She won just after teammate Ryan Murphy netted his own gold medal and Olympic record in the men’s backstroke. “There was a lot of pressure obviously, just going in there”.

Plenty agreed as the 24-year-old world champion from Russian Federation was showered with boos as she took to the blocks.

The Olympic gold medal caps a dominant year for King in the 100m breast.