According to Reuters, Tygart spoke out in support of US swimmer Ryan Murphy, who lost the 200-meter backstroke swim to Russian Yevgeny Rylov. The American said that some rivals could use doping.
- Russian government and sports officials have shrouded themselves in a dark past and, unfortunately, dragged their athletes into what is happening. Now these officials continue to lie, deny and attack those who have the courage to resist their deception and blatant disregard for rules and truth, Tygarth said.
He pointed out that the doping program in the Russian Federation is sponsored by the state and supported by officials, and the IOC and WADA are trying to "throw dust in the eyes" of the whole world, saying that Russia is officially prohibited from participating in the Olympic Games. Tygart said that the IOC and WADA should invest their efforts and resources in publishing individual tests of athletes and make them publicly available, “thereby ensuring transparent international accounting of changes in the situation in Russia, since recent years indicate that, unfortunately, nothing has changed ".
We will remind, Murphy called the swim "unclean", but later said that he had no claims to the victorious Russian Yevgeny Rylov, saying that the criticism was directed towards the International Swimming Federation.
- Once again we were convinced that it was a misunderstanding. We have never had claims to each other, we remain good rivals. We both stand for clean sport, Rylov said.
The Russian Olympic Committee called the current situation "an old barrel organ, again dragging on the song about Russian doping."