In the most-heated night in Olympic swimming history, Efimova was booed on the podium as she collected her 100 metres breaststroke silver medal behind American Lilly King, with whom she had a bitter falling out throughout the heats and semi-finals.

Efimova was given a last-minute reprieve from FINA and allowed to swim in Rio after initially being banned following the McLaren report into Russian doping activities. The 24-year-old served a 16-month ban for steroids in 2013 and tested positive for meldonium prior to the Games.

She claimed to have stopped taking the drug before it was outlawed and it was still in her system but her presence in Rio was greeted with hostility by rivals and particularly the outspoken King, who continued the attack at a staggering press conference that left Efimova distraught.

King had been emboldened by Australia's Mack Horton, who publicly branded his rival Sun Yang a "drug cheat" before beating him in a thrilling final of the 400m freestyle.

Efimova has been in Sydney at a training camp and is reputedly looking for an Australian coach and potentially an Australian base as she prepares for the Russian titles, then the FINA world championships in Hungary later in the year.

Swimming NSW chief executive Mark Heathcote said they had checked with ASADA and FINA before accepting Efimova to race in the meet at the Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, which will also feature the competitive return of Cate Campbell.

"Her team contacted us about a month ago, asking if there would be any problems coming to our event. Her team was doing a training camp here in Sydney in the lead-up to that event. We didn't help with that part, that was for them to sort out," Heathcote said.

"We have a number of internationals come each year. This is the first time we've had any Russians but we said she was more than welcome to come along.

"We were obviously aware of the stories out of Rio. We did check with the relevant authorities, ASADA and FINA, to make sure there weren't any issues with her competing.

"They indicated there was nothing to prevent her from swimming. Following that, we welcomed her to come and attend."

Heathcote said he hoped the combative atmosphere of the Rio pool had subsided and Efimova would be treated with respect by adversaries and any fans.

"In an idea world, that would be fantastic. We have a number of international teams. We would like all of our visitors to be treated just like the Australians are."

That may be optimistic given the stance of Horton in Rio, which was backed not only by his Dolphins teammates but Swimming Australia, which supported his striking a blow for clean racing.

It's a subject that has raised its head again this week after Olympic great Michael Phelps appeared before a congressional panel and said it was likely he'd never raced in a clean international field in his entire career.

???"I don't believe that I've stood up at international competitions and the rest of the field has been clean," Phelps said. "I don't believe that. I don't think I've ever felt that."

Efimova's visit comes at time where Swimming Australia has reduced the number of high-performance centres (HPC) from 14 to nine. Athletes with doping records are banned from the HPC facilities but nothing prevents them from renting lane space at private pools, of which there are now five more.

If she does base her training here under an Australian coach, Efimova wouldn't be the first foreign swimmer with a doping record to set up camp. Sun has trained on the Gold Coast along with another Chinese former world champion Ning Zetao, as has South Korea's Park Tae Hwan, who also lines up in Sydney.