RIO DE JANEIRO —
Russian boxer Evgeny Tishchenko understood the booing he heard Monday
afternoon as he strutted to the ring inside Riocentro Pavilion 6 and
ducked under the ropes. He would face Brazilian Juan Nogueira, and
naturally the raucous crowd would support a native son. What bothered
Tischenko was how familiar the sound had already become.
The
Russians, like characters from any garden-variety Cold War movie, are
cast in the role of the villains at the Rio Olympics. During the first
three days of competition, they have competed under the suspicion of
fellow athletes and under the derision of otherwise neutral fans. More
than 100 Russian athletes were banished from the Games because of their
ties to a state-sanctioned doping program; the 270 or so who were
cleared and are here to compete have encountered open hostility.
The
accusations leveled by global anti-doping authorities on the eve of the
Games about the extent of Russian cheating dating from 2011 ensured no
athlete here can compete against a Russian without at least a healthy
dose of uncertainty, and that no fans can watch a Russian perform
without at least wondering if the results are legitimate.
After
Tischenko beat Nogueira in a 91-kilogram (200-pound) preliminary bout,
he expressed frustration at the persistent enmity toward his delegation.
“In general, it’s really a pity that the crowd performs this
way of supporting [whoever is] against Russia,” Tishchenko said through a
translator. “I’m really upset about it. It was the first time I faced
such treatment. Actually, I’m a little bit disappointed about this.”
His
countryman Timur Safin could relate. During Sunday’s men’s foil bronze
medal bout, Safin faced Britain’s Richard Kruse. The Carioca Arena 3
crowd, aside from a pocket of Russian fans, roared when Kruse scored a
point and booed when Safin touched. When Safin won the bronze, Russia’s
contingent drowned out the boos, but just barely.
“I did notice
they were giving me a bit more support,” Kruse said Monday, chuckling.
“I’d like to think they preferred my style of fencing.”
Of course, suspicions of cheating by athletes
at Olympics did not begin with the Rio Games and with Russians. Athletes
from a host of countries over the years, including several prominent
Americans, have failed doping tests at the Olympics or competed under a
cloud of doubt. But the extent of the Russian program, which purportedly
was backed by some of the country’s senior leadership, and the timing
of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s public acknowledgment of it 18 days
before the Games opened have guaranteed that the focus here — at least
for now — has been on the Russians.
Kruse
said Britain’s fencers have discussed the details and implications of
last month’s WADA report since arriving in Brazil. “We’ve been talking
about virtually nothing else,” he said. The topics included guessing
which Russian fencers most relied on strength and looked the most buff.
The
discussion grew starker once Kruse lost a medal directly to a Russian.
“I mean, look, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Kruse said.
“If this is a state-sponsored program of cheating, that’s obviously
pretty sad for humanity. I’d like to see the best in people. Some of
these Russians are very fit.”
Kruse levied
no accusations and spoke in a cheerful, almost sympathetic tone. “If we
assume all of them are doping, and they’re clean, then we’re
disrespecting their life’s work,” Kruse said. But he also stated the
reality that has turned Russians into rogues: It is difficult to trust
the fairness of the Games.
“If the facts we’ve been given are true in the Western media, then yeah,
of course it is,” Kruse said. “I just don’t know what to say. I hope
they’re clean. I suppose the one positive result is, if it’s
state-sponsored, I imagine the athletes wouldn’t have much choice. I
imagine it’s you take it, or you’re down the salt mine. No one knows
who’s clean and who’s not.”
Russian whistleblowers, first in a 2014 German television documentary
and in New York Times and CBS “60 Minutes” reports this year, exposed a
widespread, state-sponsored doping program that centered upon the 2014
Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The reports prompted WADA to
commission an investigation; the resulting report confirmed and detailed
the Russians’ doping efforts.
The International Olympic Committee left the decision of whether and
how to sanction Russian athletes who had not tested positive to
individual sports federations. The probes and politics have left Russian
athletes, clean or not, in awkward positions.
Most Russian
athletes did not know if they would be permitted to compete until — or,
in some cases, even after — the Games started. On Thursday, the IOC
announced it had cleared 271 Russian athletes to compete. The number
climbed after two Russian swimmers and a wrestler won appeals through
the IOC’s Center of Arbitration for Sport. The center also rejected
three cyclists hoping to overturn their exclusion, but some athletes
questioned how they could be let back in.
“Clearly there’s more
that needs to be done, and clearly the circumstances we’re dealing with
is frustrating to a lot of athletes and unjust to a lot of athletes,”
said U.S. swimmer Cody Miller, who won a bronze medal Sunday in the
100-meter breaststroke. “During this Games there will probably be people
who miss the podium to people who don’t deserve to be on the podium.
And that is wrong. And I don’t have a solution for that. But it’s
wrong.”
The sense of Russian cheating is
apparent at the swimming venue, where a host of Russian athletes —
previously banned — have been allowed to compete because of a
last-minute decision by FINA, the sport’s world governing body.
Initially, FINA banned seven Russian swimmers. When some of those
swimmers have appeared on the starting blocks, the reaction from the
crowd at Olympic Aquatics Stadium has been unmistakable: boos.
The
crowd booed Yulia Efimova, a 24-year-old breaststroker who was banned
for 16 months for using anabolic steroids, later tested positive for the
banned substance meldonium
but had that ruling overturned. It booed the Russian men’s 4x100-meter
freestyle relay team, which was introduced last before Sunday night’s
final — won by the United States — because it had posted the top seed in
that afternoon’s qualifying heats.
The reaction has been
strongest among athletes and spectators; and it is the athletes who are
speaking out, invoking the idea that politics are playing a role in
determining who competes and who doesn’t.
“It’s like FINA keep going back on their word, and the IOC keep going
back on their word,” Irish swimmer Fiona Doyle told reporters. “And FINA
caved in to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and that’s just not
fair on the rest of the athletes who are clean. Who are you supposed to
trust now? They have signs all over the village saying we are a clean
sport — and it’s not.”
Efimova was involved in perhaps the most visible spat between a
previously banned Russian athlete and a competitor. When she won her
semifinal in the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday night, she pointed her
index finger in the air as an apparent reference to American Lilly King,
who had gestured similarly after winning her afternoon heat.
As
Efimova finished her race, NBC showed images of King watching on a
monitor in the “ready room,” where swimmers wait before their events.
Signaling her displeasure at Efimova’s gesture, King wagged her finger
back-and-forth at the Russian.
“You know, you’re shaking your finger [to signal] number one and
you’ve been caught for drug cheating,” King, standing poolside,
explained to NBC afterward. “And I’m just not a fan.”
After
King edged Efimova in Monday night’s final, she didn’t back off the
rhetoric, saying, “It’s incredible — winning the gold medal and knowing I
did it clean.”
Efimova, for her part, had nothing specific to
say about the circumstances of her ban or her reinstatement. Following
her heat Sunday afternoon, she declined further interview requests after
stopping briefly to talk to wire service reporters.
“I don’t
know what to do,” Effmova said. “It was crazy the last year-and-a-half. I
didn’t understand what was going on. I’m just happy to be here and
ready to race.”
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