Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — Antipathy over the Russian doping scandal has been pervasive at the Olympics, from some Russians drawing negative crowd reactions to 19-year old American swimmer Lilly King trash-talking her competitor before beating her for a gold medal.

But when Travis Stevens lost his bid Tuesday to become the first American man to win a gold medal in judo to Russian Khasan Khalmurzaev, there was a genuine, warm embrace. At this level of Judo, they are competitors for sure. But they are also offseason training partners and consider themselves brothers, regardless of country. Stevens has even traveled to Russia several times, he said, to train with their national team.

“Judo is a different sport,” Stevens said. “The Russian team has been kind to me. We bleed together. It’s more of a brotherhood. We want to make sure we’re in the best shape we can be, so who better to train against than the best in the world? Whether he won or I won, I’m happy for him.”

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As Stevens accepted his silver medal after being defeated by ippon, a decisive move that ended the match with 2:42 remaining, the emotion showed on his face. Twice he was nearly derailed from making these Olympics, first by a concussion that took him out of training for two months and then by a severe infection in his knee a little more than a year ago.

Despite a swollen leg that doctors overseas could not properly diagnose, he tried to compete anyway at the world championships in Kazakhstan before coming home to learn he had MRSA, cellulitis and staph in his right knee and was probably two days away from having to endure a leg amputation.

Stevens contemplated retiring from the sport right then. Instead, he recovered and trained for his third trip to the Olympics in the 81 kg weight class. In the semifinals — the round he lost in London — he beat world No. 1 ranked Avtandil Tchrikishvili of Georgia to give himself a shot at the gold.

While he came up short, it was the first medal in men’s judo for the U.S. of any kind since 2004.

“It’s hard not to just break down in tears after everything I’ve been through,” he said. “You question, what is this moment worth? It was everything.”

BEST IMAGES FROM AUG. 9 AT THE OLYMPICS