{"id":1967,"date":"2021-07-30T22:50:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T22:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2021-07-30T22:50:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T22:50:35","slug":"tokyo-olympics-russians-face-backlash-from-fellow-competitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/tokyo-olympics-russians-face-backlash-from-fellow-competitors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Olympics: Russians face backlash from fellow competitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Russian athletes stand on the podium after winning an <\/strong>Olympic gold<\/strong>\u00a0 in Tokyo, they hear a Tchaikovsky piano concerto rather than their national anthem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And some of them also hear questions.<\/p>\n

More than 300 athletes across 30 sports are competing as the Russian Olympic Committee rather than as their country as part of sanctions for doping scandals.<\/p>\n

They are fourth in the medal table, with 10 golds and 34 medals, but their success has not sat well with some of their fellow competitors who believe they should not be at the Games because of the country’s doping record.<\/p>\n

American swimmer Ryan Murphy said Friday’s 200m backstroke final was “probably not clean” after he lost his Olympic title to Russian Evgeny Rylov.<\/p>\n

While Murphy later rowed back on his comments, saying he was speaking about doping generally, Rylov said the American was entitled to his thoughts given Russia’s doping past.<\/p>\n

British swimmer Luke Greenbank, who won bronze in that race, said: “It’s obviously a very difficult situation not knowing whether who you are racing against is clean.<\/p>\n