Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Your Olympic moment for today

No, not Lilly King from Evansville beating two-time doper Yulia Efimova of Russia to the wall in the women's 100 breaststroke, a victory for truth, justice and the American way.  That was just the appetizer.

The real Olympic moment happened later, at the post-race presser, when King did that rarest of things in the Games: Stick a fork in provincial double standards.

Asked specifically about American track star Justin Gatlin, himself a two-time doper, she did not pull out an American flag, wave it and say, well, you know, that's different. It's not, and she knew it wasn't.

"Do I think people who have been caught for doping offenses should be on the team? No, they shouldn't," she said.

"People." Not "Russians." Not "Lithuanians." Not Poles, Brits, Chinese, Aussies, Bhutanese, Turks, Mongolians or Lichtensteiners. People.

Meaning, there'll be no wrapping the flag around this issue as far as King is concerned, no casting Gatlin's appearance as some quaint little comeback story, as NBC undoubtedly will. If Efimova shouldn't have been on those blocks last night, then Gatlin shouldn't be in them a week hence. U-S-A, U-S-A be hanged.

And kudos to one fearless 19-year-old kid for pointing that out.

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