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The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) winning a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics in the rowing women’s pair Thursday didn’t sit well with one of their American counterparts.
Megan Kalmoe, the U.S. rower who didn’t get to compete for a medal in the pairs, expressed her displeasure with the ROC on social media.
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"Seeing a crew who shouldn’t even be here walk away with a silver is a nasty feeling. Really disappointing overall and I feel for the other athletes in the A Final. Big love to all my friends and frenemies who gave it everything out there," Kalmoe wrote.
Kalmoe clarified her tweet in an interview with row2k.com.
"I just posted on Twitter a couple of things that I’m sure some people will be upset about, or maybe they won’t," she said. "But I think a lot of people in this field are very, very classy women who are probably a little bit too polite to say some of the stuff that I’m willing to say, especially because I wasn’t in the A-final, and also because Russia beat us by enough places in our qualifier that they didn’t take a spot from us, but having them here and having them walk away with one of the medals was really hard for me to watch.
"I don’t think that they should have been here, and there are a lot of women here that I think were very qualified to win one of those medals, and them not having that opportunity because that boat was here was very problematic for me as a competitor."
ROC is the name given to Olympic athletes representing Russia. Russia’s name, flag and anthem are banned but the red, white and blue on the uniforms are allowed.
The latest rules and restrictions on Russian athletes participating in the Olympics came last year from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) amid the country’s cover-up of anti-doping data.
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Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia of the Russian Olympic Committee pose with their silver medals after the women's rowing pair final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 29, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) spotted strange anomalies in Russia’s lab files related to doping. WADA investigators said evidence had been deleted and spurious information added, including messages to tarnish the reputation of former lab director Grigory Rodchenkov.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) described the tampering in 2019 as "flagrant manipulation" and "an insult to the sporting movement."
WADA said the edits were made while the lab was blocked by Russian law enforcement. Moscow denied any wrongdoing. The CAS cut Russia’s four-year sanctions to two.
Megan Kalmoe and Tracy Eisser of the United States react after competing in the women's rowing pair final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 29, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Russia sent 330 athletes to Tokyo under the ROC banner. It’s the second-lowest number since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia were the Russian rowing pair who won the silver behind New Zealand. It didn't appear the pair were ever implicated in doping scandals.
Kalmoe and partner Tracy Eisser finished fourth in their heat. The top three teams in each heat moved onto the semi-finals.
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