The International Olympic Committee Monday urged athletes to show "respect" to each other in the wake of a war-of-words involving drug-tainted swimmers and their rivals. Australia swimmer Mack Horton triggered uproar in China after branding rival Sun Yang as a "drugs cheat" before dethroning the Chinese star at the weekend. That was followed by more vitriol Sunday when athletes rounded on two-time Russian doping offender Yulia Efimova. Efimova, cleared at the l1th hour to compete in Rio, was subjected to boos from the crowd while rival swimmers took verbal digs. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the organization encouraged free speech and had no plans to take action. However he said competitors had a right to compete "in tranquility" and appealed to athletes to show respect to one another. "Clearly we want to encourage freedom of speech," he said. "But on the other hand of course the Olympics is about respecting others and respecting the right of others to compete," he added. "There is a line somewhere there, and each case is different of course, where people should be free to compete in tranquility. "So, yes, we would encourage people to respect their fellow competitors." Adams said the IOC had no plans to take action over the Horton-Sun spat. "People say many things after competition and they're entitled to say those things," he said. "At the moment we've had no complaints from anyone and no need to take it any further as far as we see." Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada meanwhile suggested that some booing heard at venues was a symptom of Brazil's love for football. "Booing is a part of the football culture," Andrada said. "It's part of the education that we need to help the Brazilians understand." Adams added: "Brazilian fans seem to be pretty egalitarian. They seem to be able to boo athletes from many countries. "It's quite difficult to work out why they might be booing one athlete and not another." Rio to replace flawed Chinese flags Rio Olympics organizers said they would replace the Games' official Chinese flags Monday after the discovery of a design flaw which caused fury in China. A spokesman insisted the design had been approved by Chinese officials but he said their Brazilian manufacturer was now rushing to produce correct flags. The realization that the four small, golden stars on the Chinese emblem are pointing upwards rather than towards the bigger star, as they are supposed to, sparked recriminations among patriotic Chinese. "We do understand that there is a problem with the flag. It's very small," said Games spokesman Mario Andrada. "You have to be very familiar with the Chinese flag to understand that. However we need to correct it." Flag-bearer Lei Sheng carried the erroneous Chinese standard at the Games' opening ceremony, and by early on day three the Chinese flag had been hoisted eight times in honor of medalists from the country. China's consulate-general made a formal complaint to the organizing committee, who took the problem to the company that made the flags.
