The Russian Olympic Committee hits back after US swimmer Ryan Murphy suggested the race wasn't '100% clean'

• US swimmer Ryan Murphy said he thinks swimming at the Tokyo Olympics isn't "100% clean."
• He was beaten in the 100m and 200m backstroke by Russian athlete Evgeny Rylov.
• The Russian Olympic Committee responded suggesting he was offended by being beaten.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has hit back after US swimmer Ryan Murphy suggested Evgeny Rylov's 200m backstroke gold medal wasn't "100% clean."

Murphy took silver in the race and bronze in the 100m backstroke - having won both events at the Rio Olympics - with Rylov winning gold in both.

Rylov's 200m time of 1min 53.27sec is an Olympic record.

Murphy's comments led the ROC to tweet a strongly-worded statement suggesting he was offended by being beaten.

Asked by a reporter how he felt afterward, Murphy said: "I've got about 15 thoughts, and 13 of them would get me into a lot of trouble. It is a huge mental drain to go through the year knowing that I'm swimming in a race that's probably not clean."

He continued: " I don't have the bandwidth to train for the Olympics at a very high level and try to lobby the people that are making the decisions that they're making the wrong decisions."

With Russia currently banned from the Olympics due to doping sanctions, 330 Russian athletes, including Rylov, are competing in Tokyo as "neutrals" under the flag of the ROC, as Insider's Sam Cooper reported.

Murphy insisted he wasn't accusing Rylov of anything

At a press conference alongside Rylov shortly after, Murphy said he wasn't accusing the Russian of anything.

Asked again whether he thought the race was clean, Murphy said: "One of the things that's frustrating is that you can't answer that question with 100% certainty, and I think over the years that's come out, so I can't answer that question. I don't know if it was 100% clean and that's because of things that have happened in the past."

He added that he was not making any allegations and congratulated Rylov and Great Britain's Luke Greenbank, who took bronze in the 100m backstroke.

Greenbank also waded in on the topic, saying: "Obviously there's a lot of media around certain nations in this Olympics, and obviously it's frustrating seeing that as an athlete, knowing that there was a state-sponsored doping program going on and that more could have been done to tackle it."

Rylov denied he was doping, saying: "I have always been for clean competition. I am always tested."

He added: "Ryan didn't accuse me of anything so I'd rather not react to what he said."

Despite insisting he was not accusing Rylov, Murphy said: "At the end of the day, I do believe there is doping in swimming."

The ROC, however, tweeted a strong response in Russian, saying the athletes making doping comments were upset by their defeats.

-Olympic Russia (@Olympic_Russia) July 30, 2021

"How unnerving our victories are for [some]. Yes, we are here at the Olympics. Absolutely right. Whether people like it or not," the tweet read, as translated by CNN.