RIO DE JANEIRO – With the wag of a finger and a cascade of boos, the months-long Russian doping controversy has come to life at the Olympic Aquatics Center.
The swimming venue has become the crossroads of a morality play that harkens back to the days of the Cold War. A 100-meter race between two breaststrokers has turned into a metaphor for the endless bickering between East and West. A battle of words and frog kicks has become the culmination of the growing antagonism between the Russian state-sponsored doping machine and those nations around the world that have spoken out forcefully against it.