OPINION: Lilly King Shouldn’t Feel Ways Towards Yulia Efimova, She Should Be Angry With IOC

American swimmer Lilly King beat Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova on Monday in a dual of the U.S. vs. Russia. Efimova is one of the top female swimmers in the breaststroke. She won the 50 m and 200 m world championships and she won the bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke in at the London 2012 Olympics. King was not impressed with Efimova but she really should have beef with the IOC instead.

Efimova wasn’t supposed to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics due to the investigations of the Russian team accused of doping in the 2012 London Olympics and testing positive for meldonium earlier this year.

In 2013 Efimova tested positive for DHEA, a banned steroid hormone as stated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). She served a 16-month ban from competition as punishment.

Russian tennis player, Maria Sharapova, tested positive for meldonium as well (how ironic) of which she was given a two-year ban. Meldonium was added to the list of banned substances by the Wada at the beginning of 2016 due to growing evidence that athletes were using it to enhance performance. If the drug is taken directly before exercise it has beneficial effects on metabolism and stamina.

Both Wada and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced meldonium would be on the list of banned substances four months before it was enforced.

According to SB Nation Efimova could have faced a lifetime doping ban, but instead she was reinstated for this Olympics. It was unfair that she was reinstated, and fans felt the same way. After she swam the 100 m breaststroke last Sunday she was booed after she finished with the second fastest time. Efimova hasn’t taken her second chance humbly, when she got the second fastest time she raised her finger for the “number one” sign after the race. This gesture is just invitation for fans and fellow competitors, like King, to dislike Efimova for cheating.

Check out the finger way compilation by NBC after last Sunday’s race.

Instead of being upset with her competition, King should be rebuking the IOC’s decision to grant Efimova a second chance. She got a chance that she shouldn’t have gotten.

The IOC granted her a second chance because she tested positive for the substance in January 2016 and that was shortly after meldonium was added to the list of banned substances. Going by Wada and Sharapova’s case, Efimova and the Russian teams should have known back in September that this substance was going to be banned. Looks like the IOC isn’t as tough as the ITF.

The IOC is responsible for creating animosity between competitors. There should be continuity in the way cases are treated. If Sharapova and Efimova were both taking the same substance and were informed of it at the same time, and both tested positive, their consequence should be the same.