Russian swimmer Vladimir Morozov was a member of his nation’s 4x100m freestyle relay last night in Rio. He and his teammates garnered a 4th place finish in the event, but the disappointment of falling short of the podium was overshadowed by the negative vibe in the air before the Russian squad even got wet.
24-year-old Morozov was one of the Russian swimmers originally banned from competing at the 2016 Olympic Games due to his name appearing within the McLaren Report. Although the former University of Southern California swimmer was ultimately cleared by both the Russian Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee, Morozov’s, as well as most Russian athletes’, road to Rio has left a bad taste in fans’ mouths.
As such, any Russian swimmer who stepped on deck so far in Rio – Morozov, Yulia Efimova – have been unmistakable booed by the audience. But, this is not surprising to Morozov.
Of the fans’ reaction, Morozov said, “It was expected”. He said he’s had a hard time the past two weeks and expected his Russian squad to land upon the podium, but the race didn’t go according to plan.
“Everything turned out quite differently. About us, I thought it will be the first or the second, but it did not work out.”
Morozov cranked out a 47.31 split, the fastest of the Russian quartet last night. He will have another couple of shots at a medal, as Morozov is competing in the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle events.
With USAS around the corner I think it is time for someone to propose a US training ban on any athlete that has tested positive for a banned substance, no college, no club, no coaching of doped athletes. As a swimming power house we have to set a world standard for a clean sport.
Since you treat your country as a power house, which can teach the world the rules, can you also set a world standard for sprinters too?
Different sport and a totally different national federation. And, frankly, your comment is classic diversion. I’ll bet most – if not all – Americans posting on this site would be in favour of a total ban on Gatlin & co. if it were up to them.
It doesn’t matter, what kind of sport / national federation we are talking about, no any country in the world has the right to set standards for the whole world. Otherwise we will find ourselves on very, VERY slippery way.
As for your last sentence – may be it is more honest to fight for total ban of Gatlin&Co _before_blaming the Russians?
The US – nor Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany or anybody – isn’t “setting the standard” for the world. WADA, FINA, FIFA, the IOC, the IAAF – all of the governing federations – have anti-doping protocols and to compete in events sanctioned by those federations, the respective national federations – including the Russian ones – have to agree to abide by those protocols.
The Russian sporting federations with one hand agreed to abide by the rules and with the other, they – the Russian Government – set up a programme to bypass them. It was – it is – state-sponsored cheating. There is no way to rationalize it.
There is a fundamental difference between Gatln, et.al. and the Russian… Read more »
My sentence was the answer for Too Harsh? I know how WADA,FINA etc.operate, thank you. No one says doping should be allowed. But since USOC was also involved before in the scandal with positive samples cheating during Olympics, I wonder, where were the sanctions against it? 86 US athletes were positive during LA games and still were allowed to participate the games because this information was covered up by USOC. Between 1991 to 2000, as it was revealed recently, some 100 American athletes who failed drug tests and should have been prevented from competing in the Olympics were cleared to compete, among those athletes was Carl Lewis. And who knows, may be the other reveals will happen. So, it’s not… Read more »
Anastasia. Go back to your state run media and inability to see reality. In the US we are great because we can debate hard issues not hide behind platitudes and deflection. M Polata is correct, most of the American posters on this site think Gatlin should be in the dustbin of doping shame. Just because he’s American doesn’t change the fact that Russia was trying to nationalize doping.
Seems like you are really great in the politeness and ability to give reasonable arguments in a civilized way.
OMG – USAS has plenty of problems of its own and in no way should it be considered a “world standard”. As far as I am concerned, changing Results in SWIMS is no different than changing results in ADAMS. “Unfair Advantage” is condoned for some athletes in the USAS club setting, the USA Universities, but now because some are representing a foreign country people are outraged? Southern California Swimming, the LSC Vlad swam in, has a history of lying, cheating, stealing and retaliation. So – Russia refusing to believe the McLaren report is no different than USA Swimming refusing to believe FACTUAL evidence placed in front of their faces!!! USAS needs to deal with their own corruption before they can… Read more »
Totally agree that USAS has problems of its own, won’t disagree that So Cal has its own issues, my point is simply that we are the land of opportunity, we have arguably in the eyes of many the best coaches in the world, when individuals choose to dope we should not offer the opportunity for them to thrive in our environment. Are there dopers in the US? Most definitely, is it state sponsored doping, not likely. Keep in mind my call was for athletes in general, this would include Americans.
Additionally, there is a HUGE difference between using cannibus and PED’s.
I feel bad for him. I believe he is clean until someone shows any kind of evidence against him, I am not buying all this McLaren report stuff.
So you think the McLaren report just picked Vlad out of nowhere and put his name into the report?
McLaren report is not the Bible, and he is just a human. What if it was a mistake? Who read this “secret part” of his report, and who knows what is really written there? Morozov was mentioned there, but was he suspected for using steroids for years or single use of cannabis out of competition? Or something else? Again, why people who cry about ideals of clean sport are so stubborn in not disclosing this part of McLaren report? Open it to the public opinion please and tell what is written literally against every surname.
Again, do you believe that Vlad was added to this report with no merit, meaning, he was chosen at random and placed into this report simply because he is a fast swimmer?
Look, the only thing that the report says about Vlad is that he was on a list of disappeared positives, which means that we don’t know if he has in fact used a banned substance OR Russia added his name to the list as a way of protection for him in case he uses a drug. Nobody has the right to call him a doper without good evidence… not just a list of names, especially when Vlad has never tested positive on a test. The people that booed are just disgusting.
By the way, I think that dopers proved guilty should be banned.
Again, I didn’t write he was added with no merit because I didn’t see what was in the secret part of the record. Having a lawyer in my family I prefer to see more proves before announce somebody guilty. The question is to what degree we should trust the main witness of McLaren, Dr. Rodchenkov, who left Russia in order to avoid legal punishment for involving athletes into doping schemes and destroing positive samples? If he dues to lie before who can guarantee he is telling the truth now?
True words are spoken. The report in itself is not a holy grail of bulletproof truth. If he has such evidence, he would not mind to publish it openly, in the best interests of fighting doping.
I’d take the Mclaren report over your speculation. The McLaren report was based upon objective facts, work from dozens of people, interviews, and review of authenticated documents. So don’t give us that “he’s only human” and it’s “not the bible” crap.
So what do the interviews, objective facts, and authenticated documents say about him?
You realize he didnt compete in the winter Olympics in Russia? He trains and lives in California.
If only he had been more patient, not swum for Russia in London, and waited for his US citizenship to represent USA, he would have been on the top of that podium along with Phelps and Adrian getting his gold medal.
US should have expedited his path to beig a citizen in 2012. He was naturalized living in the US for his entire high school career.
So he could heat for us!? No thanks…not Russia’s fault he chose to dope. His times speak for themselves. Looked flat last night without his juice.
Considering Russia was the party responsible for making his tests “disappear,” I would say it is Russia’s fault.
It does not appear that you know anything about his case.
Do you have info the rest of us do not?
If so, what is that info?
The rumor is that it was tried but immigration dept did not allow to expedite the process.
Ask any professional athlete to wait 4 years for a chance at glory instead of taking that chance in the present and I guarantee you most would take the immediate opportunity. A lot can change in 4 years and even more so for a professional athlete. Their careers can end in seconds. Why do you think so many pro football players opt for more guaranteed money in their contracts that are also front loaded?
Yeah, but think about the information he had at the time. Lezak had retired, and Vlad had to make the decision before Adrian showed that he’d be a force to be reckoned with in the 100 instead of just the 50. And by all accounts Michael Phelps was leaving Team USA for good. Lochte was getting older and wasn’t a 100 specialist. And the relay 100 was never the best part of Jones’ program. Russia had what seemed to be the base for a gold-contending relay 4 years down the line. The U.S. relay looked like it was going to have to be built from the ground up after 2012.
It’s only with the hindsight of knowing that Adrian would… Read more »
He should’ve known tho, America doesn’t rebuild. We reload
Well, thank you for the comment. It explains a lot.
I would’ve booed too, especially at Efimova.
Yes. Dopers should get booed.