Banned Russian swimmers showing up on start sheets
RIO DE JANEIRO — Yulia Efimova will be competing at the Olympics after all.
In a bizarre turn to the Russian doping scandal, world swimming governing body FINA finally revealed Saturday that Efimova will indeed be taking part in the 100-meter breaststroke.
The reigning world champion was listed on the start sheet in the fifth of six heats for the preliminaries Sunday. She is also expected to swim in the 200 breaststroke and, presumably, the 4x100 medley relay.
Efimova, 24, has been a flashpoint in the scandal because she not only served a 16-month suspension for doping, she tested positive again this year for the now-banned substance meldonium.
That result was placed on hold while WADA does further studies on the drug, which was added to the banned list at the start of the year.
As part of the IOC’s decision not to throw the entire Russian team out of the Olympics, Efimova was initially banned along with six other Russian swimmers who had positive tests on their record or were named in an investigation of the massive, state-sanctioned doping scheme.
Now, it looks as if they will all be competing in Rio, though FINA has never released official confirmation.
Instead, the swimmers are quietly being added to the start lists. That’s what happened Saturday, after the initial list for the women’s 100 butterfly didn’t include Natalia Lovtcova.
The list was revised just hours before the preliminaries, adding Lovtcova to the last of six heats. She finished 26th and failed to advance to the semifinals.
Vladimir Morozov, Nikita Lobintsev, Daria Ustinova, Mikhail Dovgalyuk and Anastasia Krapivina are also expected to compete after initially being banned.
“For an athlete that’s clean, it’s really frustrating for me to see that,” Canadian swimmer Ryan Cochrane said. “Once the games are over, that’s something we’ll all look back on and (wish) was handled better throughout the quadrennial, not just before the Olympics.”
U.S. women’s water polo coach Adam Krikorian of Mountain View has left the team to be with his family after the death of his brother Blake Krikorian, co-founder of Slingbox.
Blake, a Silicon Valley businessman was 48. San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault told the Chronicle that Krikorian had gone paddle boarding in Pacifica on Wednesday and was found lying next to his car in the Linda Mar beach parking lot. Foucrault said it appears he died of natural causes.
Adam Krikorian plans to return to Rio on Monday, according to USA Water Polo. The United States plays Spain in its Olympic opener Tuesday.
The Olympic opening ceremony was seen by an estimated 26.5 million viewers in the United States, a 35 percent drop from the audience who watched the pageantry from London four years ago.
NBC said Saturday that some of that difference will be made up when streaming and time-shifted viewership is figured in. But still, it’s an early warning sign that the Rio Games might not be the smash success of the London Games.
One of NBC’s fears came true when U.S. viewership dropped off after the entrance of the United States team in the Parade of Nations. Because Portuguese was being used, the “Estados Unidos” came much earlier in the parade than normal.
There’s a contradictory mission for rowers in this year’s Olympics. Get into your boat, work your hardest — but try to avoid the water.
And definitely don’t swallow it.
But Serbian rowers Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik found themselves immersed in it on Day 1 of the regatta. The pair capsized — a rare sight at elite rowing events — in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, where choppy waters left athletes struggling to stay in their boats.
“I can’t recall ever being in a race where one of the crews has capsized,” said New Zealand rower Hamish Bond, who won the qualifying heat with partner Eric Murray. “It’s unfortunate for them.”
Rowers bleached the handles of oars, swished with anti-bacterial mouthwash, kept water bottles in plastic bags and took precautions to avoid coming down with diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms that could compromise years of training and a chance at gold.
The lagoon’s polluted water seemed clearer than usual Saturday, probably the result of bioremediation to clean up the sewage-filled area.
Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada is officially out of the Olympics.
He was arrested Friday on allegations he sexually assaulted two Brazilian housekeepers in the Olympic Village. Police said the possible attacks happened Wednesday. Under Brazilian law, suspects can be held for a long period while a case is examined.