Olympics-Russia emboldened to continue cheating, says USADA chief

FILE PHOTO: The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USDA) Chief Executive Officer, Travis Tygart, attends an interview with Reuters during the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Symposium in Ecublens near Lausanne, Switzerland, March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - As accusations of Russian doping surfaced at the Tokyo Olympics pool the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) dove in on Saturday coming to the defence of American swimmer Ryan Murphy for suggesting some of his rivals were drug cheats.

After losing the second of his 2016 Rio Olympic backstroke titles to Russian Evgeny Rylov on Friday an unhappy Murphy hinted doping had played a part in his demise.