Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova wrapped up her tumultuous road to Rio by clinching two individual silver medals at the 2016 Olympic Games. Efimova took silver in the 100m and 200m breaststroke races, respectively, after being cleared to compete at the 11th hour.
Efimova continued on her international medal quest by collecting hardware at the first 3 stops of the FINA World Cup Series. In Moscow, the 24-year-old scored a treble of golds across the 50m/100m/200m breaststroke events, while also earning bronze in the 200m IM race. She registered new Russian National Records in the 100m breast and 200m IM to boot.
However, Efimova’s momentum will stop there, however, as the Grozny-born athlete says she has been diagnosed with purulent tonsillitis and doctors are ‘insisting she undergo surgery.’ As such, Efimova will miss the 2016 FINA Short Course World Championships and a subsequent head-to-head duel with American Lilly King.
According to a social media post by Efimova, her missing December’s meet in Windsor isn’t the only news the Russian revealed. She will also be forming an entirely new professional swimming team called ‘Team Efimova’ to be coached by her father, Andrey Efimov. Nikita Lobintsev, Lobintsev as two of three swimmers who were a part of the “disappearing positives” program run by Russian doping authorities that turned positive tests into negative (clean) tests.
Efimova was a longtime member of Dave Salo’s Trojan Swim Club based in Los Angeles until March of this year when it was confirmed she was no longer training with the squad.
Whether the new Team Efimova will be based in Los Angeles or Russia is to be determined.
FYI. Meldonium is still not banned for NCAA so is it really that advantageous?
There is little scientific evidence that it aids athletic performance
Other reports also say she’s dealing with mononucleosis/glandular fever, which either resolves itself quickly or can knock an athlete back a level for a year or more.
Maybe the meldonium had served to boost her immune system a little bit and now that it’s cleared….
team efimova (puke)
She shouldn’t be there anyways
Why ? Efimova served a 16 monthe dhea suspension when thd USA is only 12 months . All the kings horses & all the kings men could not put her away for meldonium . They tried but she beat all those suits .
When you live thru & survive the Chechen War – something I hope you experience one day , you too will be smarter & more purposeful not the dolt you are today .
I just know she cheated, the sport shouldn’t allow cheaters whatsoever. You have no clue who I am lol you can’t call someone a “dolt” based off of one comment..
You’re in high school (I assume) so you have zero perspective and probably are a dolt if you think an absolute zero tolerance policy is in any way reasonable or workable
Not in HS, anyone can have their opinions..
Sure, and anyone can be told their opinions are wrong. Or at least unrealistic
Over the past year or so I have read some of the most absurb comments made by G.I.N.A. Maybe a second positive drug test might be indicate she is willing to use PED’s to reach the highest level of her sport? Based upon your above comments you support the use of a banded substance after it was ruled to be a performance enhancing drug because “she beat all those suits”. Then you launch into the point about surviving the Chechen War? What? So because she was born in Grozny she should be allowed to use PED’s? Great way to support your position! Logic is not reserved for message boards!
DHEA is a joke of a supplement, it can be bought OTC at Walmart and I believe her story about not reading the label at GNC well enough. Any benefit she would have gained from taking DHEA is negligible and she was already a world-ranked swimmer before her first failure. Drugs are not responsible for he success and no reasonable person could make that argument. As for the meldonium, there isn’t much evidence to suggest it’s a significant performance enhancer either and was completely legal until fairly recently. She probably took it longer than was strictly legal, but really so what? There was even a grace period extended because of how long it stays in the body. She certainly wasn’t… Read more »
If all these chemicals are of no use then why to put all such garbage into your body. Maybe they are tasty like a candy and Efimova couldn’t resist the temptation? I never tried, have you? Oh, maybe this girl from the war zone was deprived of proper education and couldn’t read and comprehend about scientific evidences of inefficiency of drug she has been taking. It looks that she or her father or her first coach Vjatchanina had different opinion about that.
I don’t understand why elite athlete will mess with such stuff. Maybe she was a little bit short of greatness and required extra help to be up to Melutyte’s 2012 times. Why to play games with doping… Read more »
My own anti fan club . Why thank you but you are a dolt too.
These sixteen months had not included any major meets. And she continued to train with Dave Salo. She missed nothing. So her comparison of this suspension with the temporary suspended driver licence was pretty much accurate – you still can drive your car, because nobody care if you have it until you did something bad again.
Yes, she’s beaten all meldonium suits against her, but mostly because of WADA’s stupidity. She admitted of taking meldonium up to December 31, 2015. Why? For unspecified medical reasons that suddenly disappeared beginning January 1, 2016.
Maybe she is clean and good now, but there were too much lying in her past to trust her now.
P.S. I’m just curious why… Read more »