Rio Olympics 2016: Tearful Yulia Efimova fights back after Lilly King blasts drugs cheat following gold medal win
RUSSIAN swimmer Yulia Efimova fought back tears as she responded to Lilly King's comments that she should have been banned from the Rio Games.
King won 100m breaststroke gold after of Efimova after blasting the Russian doper who has twice been banned from competition.
After winning gold King, 19, said it was "incredible" knowing she had won "clean" - that followed an incident the night before where King had admitted she was "not a fan" of the Russian.
Following the win the American slapped the water in Efimova's lane and after the race again reinforced her stance that athletes who have been found guilty of doping should face lifetime bans.
Efimova, who won silver but was booed whenever her name was announced, was reinstated shortly before the start of the Rio Games after a successful appeal after using meldonium.
She had previously been banned for using steroids.
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Fighting back tears, Efimova said: "I once made mistakes and I was banned for 16 months.
"Second time it was not my fault.
"If Wada say tomorrow they are banning yoghurt or animal protein or stuff that other people use and they ban this and you stop, [what happens next?]
"This comes out of your body for six months and if doping control come after two months and it is still in your body, is this your fault?"
She added: "All newspaper and TV get the stories they need to write.
"But they are not true. I understand some athletes do that (dope) but athletes are [not involved] in politics.
"It’s very sad and I’m upset that some athletes don’t believe that [I am clean].
"They watch TV and act on that. They want change.
"They can’t imagine what it would feel like to change places with me.
"Those athletes who know me and see me in training and know I do my best. I do all I can. I put all my effort in.
"It is very upsetting when politics enter sport.
"I want my fellow athletes to understand each other and not let politics come into it.
"I don’t know what happens in politics.
"I have been training in the USA for the last four years and have been in Russia maybe one month a year.
"I can’t understand what is going on.
"I don’t know what’s going on in Russia and I don’t believe it.
"I don’t know what’s going on but this is reality.
"They can’t find a way how to beat Russia and maybe they use athletes but this is not fair."