Russia has accused 'Russophobic beasts' of rigging the Tokyo Olympics against it after recording its worst medal table finish in modern history

• Russian commentators and officials have accused other countries of rigging the Tokyo Olympics.
• The Russian Olympic Committee came fifth in the medal table, its worst finish in over a century.
• Lawmaker Aleksei Zhuravlyov described other countries competing in Tokyo as "a pack of Russophobic beasts."

Russian commentators and officials have accused the United States and other "Russophobic" countries of rigging the Tokyo Olympics after it recorded its worst medal table finish in modern history.

Russian athletes competed in Tokyo under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) due to the country being banned from international sport due to state-sponsored doping.

The ROC finished fifth in the medal table behind Great Britain, Japan, China, and the US, having claimed a total of 71 medals.

Not since it competed as the Russian Empire at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, has the country finished so low in the final standings.

Olga Skabeeva, a television host on Russia's state-owned channel, told viewers on Monday that the games were the "clearest example of total Russophobia."

"These Olympic Games stink," said Skabeeva, per The Daily Beast. "Global sports forever ceased being an honest competition, turning into a cheap political farce."

She added: "At the behest of Americans, the International Olympic Committee took away two gold medals from Russian."

She did not provide any evidence for her claim.

Lawmaker Aleksei Zhuravlyov described other countries competing in Tokyo as "a pack of Russophobic beasts, headed by the United States."

Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma said: "Americans are freaks. Moral freaks. Why are we even discussing this parade of freaks and perverts?"

Oleg Matveychev, a member of the Russian Expert Institute for Social Research, made particular reference to Russian gymnast Dina Averina's defeat in the rhythmic gymnastics all-around competition.

The gold had been won by Israel's Linoy Ashram - a result which the Russian team had asked to be overturned.

The main complaint against Ashram's gold medal was that she dropped her ribbon during the last exercise, which Matveychev claimed should have made it impossible for her to win.

At the 2018 world championship, however, Averina, the Russian silver medalist in Tokyo, won gold despite dropping her ribbon, beating Ashram to silver.

"The medal of the Israeli sportswoman is worthless, she should throw it out," he said, per The Daily Beast. "She hung shame around her neck."

-Чемпионат (@championat) July 26, 2021

Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of RT, was so upset with Ashram's victory, she tweeted: "After the slaughter of our gymnasts by judges from different countries, I really regret not working for the GRU."

GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, is known to specialize in assassinations. It was reportedly responsible for the attempted murder of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in England in 2018.

During the games, Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova also complained the Olympics this year are "unfair," alleging that the Russian women's 4x100 meter medley relay team failed to win a medal because of poor scheduling that put American TV broadcasts before the swimmers in the race.