The Rio 2016 Olympics have certainly had more than their fair share of controversy. All in all, though, the news has gladly shifted from Rio's turmoil to the incredible athletes and their successes. And now that the games have come to an end it's time to take a page from some of these athletes stories.
In particular, the swim team. One of America's favorite sports to watch is swimming, not just for the hot swim bods of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, but because we basically dominate the sport. If you paid any attention to any Olympic news coverage throughout the games, you undoubtedly heard the names of American, Lilly King, and her Russian competitor, Yulia Efimova. The drama all began with the women's 100-meter breaststroke. After a seemingly harmless finger, wag came from Efimova after winning her first heat appearing to say she was number one, but the response was a finger wag from King in the waiting room. This set off a firestorm.
I am a religious new watcher if you haven't figured out by now, and this simple wag of some index fingers became one of the top stories the next morning. The reason behind the response, according to King, was her strict stance against doping in her sport and all sports. Efimova and her native Russia were caught in a massive state-sponsored doping scandal. It cost Russia tons of athletes including their entire track and field team. Efimova personally has already served a 16-month ban back in 2014 and although it was lifted and she was allowed to compete in the Olympics, failed a drug test in 2016.
So why do we all need to take a note from Lilly King? For starters, the fact that she's standing up for what she believes on an international stage at the young age of 19 is admirable. In addition to condemning Efimova, she said Justin Gatlin, a United States track and field athlete, who has also had bans although he never claimed he had done anything wrong because he did not know he was consuming the substances. King is also admirable because she understands why we all love watching events like the Olympics. The draw to professional sports competitions is how far someone can push our natural human ability. The key word there was NATURAL. When athletes and now whole countries add unnatural substances to enhance performance in hopes of selfish gain, it spoils the integrity of these competitions and the awe-inspiring performances we love to watch.
In the end, King took gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, beating Efimova.
Each of us should take what Lilly King did, applaud her and go and then carry those same high standards. In addition, we should never shy away from showing a little bit of sass, it seems to go a long way.
