Brennan: Lilly King gets it right on U.S. dopers

RIO DE JANIERO — The greatest night of Lilly King’s life was not going to be complete until someone asked her about Justin Gatlin.

It was inevitable. Here she was, the 19-year-old American breaststroker who so publicly called out Russia’s twice-suspended Yulia Efimova, now boldly continuing the anti-doping conversation she had started the day before, this time with an Olympic gold medal hanging around her neck.

Gatlin, the U.S. sprinter who won the 2004 Olympic gold medal in the men’s 100 meters, also has been suspended twice for taking performance-enhancing drugs, and he is competing later on in the Rio Olympic Games.

Lilly King's coaches defend anti-doping, trailblazing Olympic gold medalist

So it was only a matter of time before a reporter asked King if Gatlin should have been allowed to be on the U.S. Olympic team considering that he has been suspended the same number of times as Efimova has.

“I have to respect their (Olympic officials’) decision even if it’s not something that I necessarily agree with,” she started out.

Most athletes on the world stage would have stopped there. Just play it safe, avoid the grief and move on.

As we are finding out, King is not like most athletes.

“Do I think people who have been caught for doping offenses should be on the team?” she continued, repeating the essence of the question. “No, they shouldn’t.”

She wasn’t done yet.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to see that, and it’s such a toss-up in between sports and in between countries. It’s just something that needs to be set in stone, that this is what we’re going to do to settle this. And that should be the end of it. There should not be any bouncing back and forth.”

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Social media experienced a miniature eruption over the news that King was calling out Gatlin, just as she did Efimova, but the two situations were hardly the same.

King was asked specifically about Gatlin Monday night. She did not bring him up or say his name. To her great credit, she also did not shy away from the topic once asked about him. She didn’t defend him because he’s an American. No, she said what had to be said.

We are witnessing something quite remarkable here. An Indiana University sophomore, unknown to almost all of us when these Olympics began four days ago, is accomplishing what the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and just about every other worldwide sports organization cannot.

She is forcing an international dialogue on this vital question: Why is anyone who has been caught cheating ever allowed to compete in the Olympic Games? Efimova, Gatlin, you name the person and the country: they should be banned for life.

The IOC is too entangled with Vladimir Putin and its fellow members of the oldest of the old boys network to touch this subject, and so are most other international sports organizations.

So King, the USA’s first breakout star of these Games – as impressive out of the pool as in it – was happy to do it for them.

King’s inspiration for confronting Efimova was not based entirely on self-interest. At the U.S. swimming team’s pre-Rio training camp, she joined her teammates for a private showing of the new documentary, The Last Gold, which tells the story of the 1976 U.S. women’s 4x100 freestyle relay team’s battle against doping superpower East Germany at the Montreal Olympics.

Wendy Boglioli, who swam the second leg of that relay 40 years ago, messaged King on Twitter after her dust-up with Efimova in the semifinals:

“Way to go.”

King messaged right back.

“Wow, thank you so much for your kind words," she wrote. "Truly means a lot coming from you. We watched The Last Gold during training camp and I loved it! Thank you for being an inspiration to so many!”

There are many parallels between what happened in 1976 with East Germany and what's happening here with Russia. Interesting, isn't it, that 40 years of pent-up frustration has been released in the words of a young woman who wasn’t even born for another 21 years?

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