RIO DE JANEIRO, August 9 /TASS/. Russian tennis player Yekaterina Makarova told journalists on Tuesday that she was surprised why Russian swimmer Yulia Yefimova was getting so many boos from fans and was so much disliked by athletes. She added that such a situation would just be unthinkable in tennis.
Yefimova won an Olympic silver medal in 100 meters breaststroke on the third day of competitions. The fans booed her during the performance and her rival American Lilly King refused to congratulate her after the final round.
"I cannot understand why Yefimova is being insulted. We do not feel that at all in tennis while in swimming everybody is attacking the Russians. Fans love us, the tennis players, very much. Russian tennis players are well behaved. That is why the local fans support us. We hear them shouting: ‘Russia forward!’", Makarova said.
On August 4, the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) satisfied Yefimova’s lawsuit against the Russian Olympic Committee and the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The International Olympic Committee took part in the process as a party in interest. Previously, the athlete was banned from competing in the Rio Olympics for the 2013 abuse of doping rules for which she had already endured her punishment. The CAS decision allowed the Russian to compete in the Rio Olympics 2016.
