Russian athletes emerging as villains of Rio Olympics

By Jamie Strashin, CBC Sports

It's something not usually heard at the Olympic Games. Booing. Loud, sustained booing. The rain of fury is directed at a common enemy: Russian athletes.

The contingent, clouded and shrouded by drug scandal, has quickly emerged as the perceived villains of these Rio 2016 Games.

Like Cold War days of old, the Russians are once again the global bad guys.

After avoiding a full Olympic ban, some wondered how fans and fellow athletes would treat Russian athletes.

That answer came quickly.

At the opening ceremony, even athletes from pariah nations were given polite applause.

But fans interrupted the global Kumbaya moment to let the Russians know their presence wasn't welcome.

It was the TV moment, when the guy nobody likes tries to slip into the party, only to have the music stop, making the entrance extra awkward.

The booing was the crowd's way of saying to the Russians, "Oh, you're here."

In the end, 271 Russian athletes came to compete in Rio. Many had been calling for a total ban of the Russian team after a WADA-commissioned report detailed state-sponsored doping. The bombshell report was released only 18 days before the Olympics, leaving the IOC little time to decide the Russian's fate. The IOC passed the decision on to individual sport federations, who were left to decide whether Russian athletes could compete.

The call for a total ban was almost universal and included many prominent Olympians.

That was never in the cards, says University of Toronto Professor Peter Donnelly, who has studied the Russian doping scandal.

Many knew a ban of Russian athletes, who had already been punished for passed doping offences, would meet legal challenges.

"If you have served your sentence, you're not supposed then be sentenced again for the same thing," Donnelly says. "There are clearly some athletes who have been guilty of doping and have been caught. And there are some athletes who have never doped."

Crowds hard on Russian athletes

Crowds and fellow athletes in Rio haven't been so generous.

The opening ceremony was just the beginning.

The booing followed the Russians to the boxing venue. The Washington Post reported that during the first three days of competition the Russians have "competed under the suspicion of fellow athletes and under the derision of otherwise neutral fans."

Russian boxer Evgeny Tishchenko, who beat a Brazilian, was unimpressed.

"It's really a pity that the crowd performs this way of supporting [whoever is] against Russia," Tishchenko told reporters through a translator. "I'm really upset about it. It was the first time I faced such treatment."

The Russians also met derision at the fencing venue, where Russia's contingent "just barely" drowned out the boos after fencer Timur Safin captured a bronze medal.

Swimmer gets brunt of scorn

But it was at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium where things seemed to boil over for the Russians.

CBC swimming commentator Byron MacDonald says he has never seen this level of ire directed at an entire Olympic team.

"The big start was on second night. They introduced the Russian men's 4x100 freestyle relay team and it was a gigantic chorus of boos," says MacDonald. "And it's like anything, momentum builds. The first day there was just a smattering, but when the Russian relay team came out it was just massive, huge, huge boos.

"That opened the floodgates and now everyone says, 'OK, we can boo,' and there was some booing for [Russian swimmer Yulia] Efimova during the final last night."

Crowd boos Russian athletes

8 years ago

Duration 0:17

Boos erupted during the Olympic swim relay competition

Efimova's place in these Games is especially controversial.  The reigning world champion has been caught and suspended twice for doping infractions. The second ban was lifted but then reinstated by the International Swimming Federation, which cited her drug history. 

She was a last-second addition to the Russian team after a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

It wasn't just the crowd who piled on her presence at the pool. U.S swimmer Lilly King couldn't contain her rage.

The beef started in the preliminaries after King watched Efimova win her heat of the 100-metre breaststroke. Efimova flashed a No. 1 sign after winning. King mocked the gesture, while watching on a monitor in the waiting area.

"You're shaking your finger No. 1 and you were caught for drug cheating. I'm just not a fan," King told NBC.

Canadian swimmer Kylie Masse understands the booing and the anger directed at the Russians.

"I believe in clean sport and an equal playing field and it's unfortunate that it's all taking away from the incredible athletes that there are," Masse told CBC.

King went on to beat Efimova for gold, never acknowledging the Russian once. Efimova captured the silver.

"Do I think people caught for doping offenses should be on the team? No. We can still compete clean and do well at the Olympic Games. And that's how it should be," King told NBC

At the press conference afterwards, regular protocol had to be altered.

"I think what they did was very interesting," MacDonald says. "Usually you are supposed to have gold, silver, bronze, but last night they put the bronze between the silver and the gold — they needed that buffer."

MacDonald says there's "nothing wrong" with the treatment of the Russians so far in Rio and predicts it will continue. He says it's an expression of the anger people feel.

"Now people can see it. It's almost, 'Hey let's do this.'"

Efimova doesn't get it. After the race she asked people "to try to understand" her.

"I don't really understand the foreign competitors. All athletes should be above politics, but they just watch TV and believe everything they read. I always thought the Cold War was long in the past," she said.