In Rio pool, disdain for dopers bubbles over

Rio de Janeiro

THE president of the International Olympic Committee made a plea for unity at the opening ceremony of the Rio Games last week. But that hope is fraying as a growing number of athletes are openly criticising competitors who have a history of using performance-enhancing drugs.

The friction has been most pronounced at the swimming competition, where Yulia Efimova of Russia and Sun Yang of China, who have served suspensions for doping, have been vilified by rivals. Whether it is vigilantism or anti-doping activism by athletes who do not trust the Olympic committee, the denouncements have overshadowed some of the athletic performances.

Where once there was polite, if sometimes awkward, silence, there is now direct confrontation. Much of it is along old political fault lines from the Cold War as, coincidentally or not, athletes from the West go …