Yulia Efimova, Vladimir Morozov, Daria Ustinova, Nikita Lobintsev Gone: No Rio 2016

Russia will have no Yuliya Efimova*, no Natalia Lovtcova**, no Anastasia Krapivina* (Marathon Swimming), no Mikhail Dovgalyuk*, at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, as a result of previous doping positives, while Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Daria K. Ustinova* gone, too, as swimmers named in the WADA investigation report. 

The information is contained in a FINA statement today in which the international swimming federation backs the IOC decision not to impose blanket ban on Russia, while showing determination to keep out of the racing in Rio any who have been tarred by the brush of doping or linked to any wrongdoing if that be proven.

The list of those barred from Rio makes up the bulk of all Russian medal hopes. Three are based overseas, Efimova and Morozov having trained at the University of South California and the Trojan program of coach Dave Salo these past several years. Salo has declared himself opposed to all supplementation but believes that war to have been lost.

Home-based world junior champion Daria Ustinova, meanwhile, tested positive for a banned substance when she was 14. She received a warning. Now 18, she is named in the IP report.

The disappeared positives – McLaren

FINA has set up an “ad hoc commission” to look into the evidence that may or may not rule Morozov and Co in. In the meantime, all samples from every Russian swimmer at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan last year is to be retested. The issue of ‘disappeared’ positives is at stake.

The questions will now flow: when the Russian Swimming federation left Morozov and Ustinova off its list of ‘swimmers eligible for the Russian Olympic Trials back in January, did it already know the truth of what is now unfolding? And if so, how long has FINA known during the months of silence since?

The unavoidable asterisk that taints unclean and clean alike in Russian swimming can be removed only by revolution at home, with clean athletes pressing the case for a clean culture and sport and getting on the case of their elders not the rest of the world. Pictured – Svetlana Chimrova, second left, and Veronica Popova, who shared a podium with a two problems among many – Daria Ustinova*, left, Yulia Efimova*, right, for global honour – by Patrick B. …

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