Posted on 07/31/2012 12:48:23 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
One of the world’s most senior swimming coaches has raised serious doubts about the validity of the “unbelievable” performance of Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese swimmer.
John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, yesterday compared Ye’s winning performance in the women’s 400m individual medley to Irish swimmer Michelle Smith, who won gold in the same event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but was banned from swimming for four years in 1998 for tampering with a urine sample. Smith, now De Bruin, always denied using performance enhancing drugs.
Ye sent shock waves through her sport on Saturday when she set the first swimming world record of these Olympics, and in doing so swam the final 50m freestyle faster than American swimmer Ryan Lochte managed in his final leg when he won the same race in the men’s event.
“We want to be very careful about calling it doping,” Leonard said.
“The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable’, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta.
“Any time someone has looked like superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping”. Ye was more than seven seconds faster in the 400m individual medley than she had been in the equivalent race of the World Championships last year. While Leonard accepted that such improvement was feasible, he described the final 100m as “impossible”. He added: “To swim three
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I don’t put anything past the Chinese. If anyone remembers, during the 2008 Olympics, most thought they lied about the ages of the women’s gymnastics team. It was believed that some of the girls were as young as 10 years old. You have to be 15 and going on 16 during the competition.
Those who believed this, stated so on the air. However, as usual, nothing was done about it.
I heard that one of the male gymnasts (age 17) had only been home for a total of 17 days since he entered the sport. I say entered very cautiously, because the Chinese government grooms the youngsters from very young and they have to leave home to train. How sad for those kids and their families. How tragic - all in the name of appeasing the god of their government.
...no doping needed.
Rudderless swiming exposed.
Alright, I’m gonna go out on a limb here...
My guess is she had some kind of miniaturized Honda Marine electric jet-drive hidden in her suit.
It was either win, or face a Nork death-panel.
I remember analyzing her posture, body language and et cetera's and we all concluded she was under age.
“So far as I am concerned they really ended they day it was decided to allow pro-athletes in.”
They lost their meaning when the Cold War ended; while we’re supposed to pretend Red China is communist, in fact they are just the low-cost, non-union scabs doing all of the manufacturing we used to do. They are an economic, not a military threat (the largest democracy in the world sits on their souther border, and they can’t deal with them, never mind us).
You could be on to something...
wouldn’t be surprised if she went shopping for the jet-drive with Rosie Ruiz - who knows how to get around town “efficiently”
the same people saying this is an overreaction also said the east german swimmers with 5 foot wide shoulders were also clean....until the wall fell and we got hold of their doping records......there has never been a female outswim the best male...never
Bet on the ChiCom being doped up
The ChiComs are big cheaters. About 12-15 yrs ago they started winning a lot of swimming events at World Championships and Olympics...and it stopped once they got busted for doping. They claimed they were using some “special seaweed”
And, Michelle Smith was a huge cheater. I remember when Janet Evans called her out for doping...and they tried to use that “sore loser” tag on Evans (like some poster in this thread has done). Evans was right....Smith was busted (she was so doped that she skipped testing...and one test used someone else’s urine)....and Smith’s husband was later busted for PED peddling.
The Commies have always cheated....and Communist China is no exception. Unfortunately, too many on the “conservative” side give Commie China a pass because of their support for liberal ideas on free trade and globalism
But it was her final 100 meters – the freestyle leg of the event – that raised eyebrows. Not only did Shiwen go virtually stroke-for-stroke with Lochte – who had won gold in the men’s 400 IM earlier in the night – she beat Lochte in the final 50 meters.Shiwen went 28.93 in her final 50 and 58.68 in her final 100 of her 400 IM. Lochte went 29.10 in his final 50. And the final 100 meters of the pair? Lochte went 58.65 to Shiwen’s 58.68.
.....sorry the Chicoms were caught.
Not only did she win the race. But she sewed,boxed and shipped 10,000 T-Shirts while doing so...
I have to agree with you.
Our daughter is a top tier ranked HS swim sprinter going to college on scholarship. She will swim in the NCAAs as a freshman. Her brothers before her were state champ sprinters.
But she will not take that much time off, and she will not swim faster than the top male sprinters. It’s just fact.
We have been in competitive swimming for nearly two decades .
I work as a stroke and turn judge and timer.
As parents of top tier swimmers we know what swimmers go through to prep for key events. We also know what they can and can’t do within reason.
What happened here defies natural biology of both an individual swimmer’s capabilities and gender.
While she may get away with it, I don’t think she earned it.
They need to check for bionic parts.
Like you my daughter swam, on the 200IM, 400IM, 200 back and long events. Running negative splits would be the warning sign right away.
Been there before with the girls like you, good luck with the swimming life, it was addictive.
How many standard deviations is 7 seconds?
Yes but that was done in the more than mile high air of Mexico City.
The Chinese started their metoric rise in the swimming world in the mid-90’s after hiring the former East German swim coach to lead their national program. I agree I am suspicous.
We’ll find out as all medal winners are tested unless they have an ancient Chinese secret that can hide the results.
I’m sure she’s as pure as Chinese drywall.
The Beamon jump was amazing indeed and was not matched by anyone (or even approached by him) for decades. The difference: Beamon was at altitude.
In field events you can occasionally hit the sweet spot more solidly than you ever have before and produce a surprise. In running/swimming/biking you have to hold that performance for a distance. I compare the 400 meter swim roughly to a 1500m or mile run. What woman will ever produce a final lap close to a contemporaneous male performance?
If she’s clean bless her, but it is beyond amazing all the way to not credible.
Man, that guy, Ye Shiwencan, can sure swim fast!
Didn’t China also have some questions raised about their women’s gymnastics last time?
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