Controversy surrounds Ye Shiwen

[phantomjournalist]

Here it's in full, phantom.

The page you were looking for could not be found. Perhaps, you should try the built in search?

I can pretty much find any other swimming event online apart from this one.

[Super Eagle]

She blew away the field again in her heat today. I think she's gonna win another gold in the 200 IM, everyone else is competing for silver

[smartbrother]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ju ... sfeed=true

Ye Shiwen's world record Olympic swim 'disturbing', says top US coach John Leonard says gold medal time was 'not believable to many people'

China has become embroiled in the first doping controversy of the London Games after one of the world's most respected coaches described the swimming prodigy Ye Shiwen's gold medal performance as "unbelievable" and "disturbing".

The American John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said the 16-year-old's performance was "suspicious" and said it brought back "a lot of awful memories" of the Irish swimmer Michelle Smith's race in the same event at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Smith, now Michelle de Bruin, was banned for four years in 1998 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

Ye stunned world swimming on Saturday by winning gold in the 400m individual medley in a world-record time. It was her final 100m of freestyle, in which she recorded a split time of 58.68sec, that aroused Leonard's suspicion. Over the last 50m she was quicker than the American Ryan Lochte, who won the men's 400m individual medley in the second-fastest time in history .

"We want to be very careful about calling it doping," said Leonard, who is also the executive director of the USA Swimming Coaches Association.

"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 the 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."

Leonard is the first major figure in the swimming world to go public with suspicions over Ye's performance. London 2012 organisers and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) have insisted that anyone cheating at the Games would be caught, with a record 6,250 tests being carried out.

About half of the 10,500 athletes, including all medal winners, will be tested for 240 banned substances. But Wada has also repeatedly raised concerns about athletes who may be successfully doping out of competition, drawing a distinction between them and "dopey dopers" who are caught during a major championships.

Stephanie Rice, the Australian who won gold in both women's medley events in Beijing in 2008, described Ye's performance as "insanely fast". Ariana Kukors, the 2009 world 200m medley champion from the US, has said it was "amazing" and "unbelievable".

Leonard, who said Ye "looks like superwoman" added: "Any time someone has looked like superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping."

His comments are liable to further increase tensions between China – which has poured huge resources into its sporting programmes in recent years and topped the US in the medal table for the first time in Beijing four years ago – and the Americans.

Ye was more than seven seconds faster in the Olympic 400m individual medley final than she had been in the World Championship equivalent last July.

Leonard said that although this vast improvement was possible, it would be very hard to achieve. "But the final 100m was impossible. Flat out. If all her split times had been faster I don't think anybody would be calling it into question, because she is a good swimmer. But to swim three other splits at the rate that she did, which was quite ordinary for elite competition, and then unleash a historic anomaly, it is just not right."

Asked about the accusation that she was doping, Ye replied: "The Chinese team keep very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem."

Leonard also questioned why Ye was not competing in the 200m or 400m freestyle, despite her phenomenal performance in that discipline in the medley, saying that was one of "a whole bunch of other questions".

He has been executive director of the WSCA since 1989. "I have been around swimming for four-and-a-half decades now," he said. "If you have been around swimming you know when something has been done that just isn't right. I have heard commentators saying 'well she is 16, and at that age amazing things happen'. Well yes, but not that amazing. I am sorry."

Leonard said that the consensus in the coaching community he represents was that the swim was "unbelievable". "I use that word in its precise meaning. At this point it is not believable to many people," he added.

"No coach that I spoke to yesterday could ever recall seeing anything remotely like that in a world level competition," Leonard continued. "Where someone could out-split one of the fastest male swimmers in the world, and beat the woman ahead of her by three-and-a-half body lengths. All those things, I think, legitimately call that swim into question."

Ye also won the 200m medley at the World Championships in 2011, and qualified fastest for the semi-finals of that event in Monday morning's heats, in a time that was 1.61sec quicker than her nearest competitor.

Leonard also argued that it was fair to point to the positive tests incurred by Chinese athletes in the past. In 2009 five junior Chinese swimmers were banned after testing positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol at the 2008 national junior championships .

[seara]

Here it's in full, phantom.

The page you were looking for could not be found. Perhaps, you should try the built in search?

I can pretty much find any other swimming event online apart from this one.

Here's a different link to the same page with the video of the full race on it.

[skillful]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19031156

[juventuss]

She was a damn mermaid. The way she dusted the field was unfair.

[seara]

What seemed unfair about it, juve?

[juventuss]

What seemed unfair about it, juve?

Did you watch it ?
It's like putting Mike Tyson in a boxing ring against a 15yr old amateur boxer.

[seara]

I posted a link to it, so yes I watched it. She wasn't ahead in the earlier laps. She might have been conserving energy for the later ones and-or they were what she's was strongest in swimming. Do you think she shouldn't have been allowed to compete because of her ability?

[juventuss]

I posted a link to it, so yes I watched it. She wasn't ahead in the earlier laps. She might have been conserving energy for the later ones and-or they were what she's was strongest in swimming. Do you think she shouldn't have been allowed to compete because of her ability?

Nothing wrong with what she did. It was just a severe beat down. Her strategy(whatever it is) paid off and made all others look slow

[phantomjournalist]

It's crazy how this American coach is brazen enough to come out to the media and basically outright accuse this 16-year old of doping. It's not only unprofessional, but it's downright embarrassing to the athlete in question. How do you expect a 16 year to handle disrespectful allegations intended to demean her character? It's a given that where there is smoke, there is usually fire, but let that be up to the IOC to decide who is cheating by performing the requisite drug tests to the best of their capacity. What the Western media is doing now is tantamount to a witch hunt. Where were the allegations when Phelps was breaking records left, right and center and sweeping gold medals in the process? Smh...

[bret- hart]

It's crazy how this American coach is brazen enough to come out to the media and basically outright accuse this 16-year old of doping. It's not only unprofessional, but it's downright embarrassing to the athlete in question. How do you expect a 16 year to handle disrespectful allegations intended to demean her character? It's a given that where there is smoke, there is usually fire, but let that be up to the IOC to decide who is cheating by performing the requisite drug tests to the best of their capacity. What the Western media is doing now is tantamount to a witch hunt. Where were the allegations when Phelps was breaking records left, right and center and sweeping gold medals in the process? Smh...

These guys are all racists. Imagine if Shiwen was a white blue eyed blonde girl...everyone in the media would have planted their lips so far up her a$$ but because she's Asian, and Chinese for that matter, they have to suspect doping. Shameful behavior by the Americans but then again i am not surprised. How can any one falsely accuse a 16yr old kid of doping??? how low must one go to do that?

[phantomjournalist]

If they find out she's clean, the next thing will be to "Caster Semenya" her and find out if she's really a female.

[Super Eagle]

She was a damn mermaid. The way she dusted the field was unfair.

I sincerely don't think she's clean. There's always something fishy anytime an athlete has such a dramatic improvement....out of nowhere.
Her Chinese coach must've discovered some undetectable contortions somewhere

[seara]

I posted a link to it, so yes I watched it. She wasn't ahead in the earlier laps. She might have been conserving energy for the later ones and-or they were what she's was strongest in swimming. Do you think she shouldn't have been allowed to compete because of her ability?

Nothing wrong with what she did. It was just a severe beat down. Her strategy(whatever it is) paid off and made all others look slow

[seara]

I hope that if she's tested all of the suspicious people will be proven wrong.

[Super Eagle]

I hope that if she's tested all of the suspicious people will be proven wrong.

Proven wrong for where? How many times was Marion Jones tested? She never failed a single drug test, remember??

The real dopers are usually one step ahead of the test.
Na da dumb dopers dem dey capture

[phantomjournalist]

She's going to break or come close to breaking the 200IM world record too. It's going to be interesting to see the shitstorm that follows that.

[seara]

I hope that if she's tested all of the suspicious people will be proven wrong.

Proven wrong for where? How many times was Marion Jones tested? She never failed a single drug test, remember??

The real dopers are usually one step ahead of the test.
Na da dumb dopers dem dey capture

So you'll remain suspicious of her no matter what?

[Scipio Africanus]

Una dey bust a gut hia for nothing. The Chinese are more than capable of mounting their own propaganda campaign to defend themselves. Nice swimming BTW.

[Super Eagle]

I hope that if she's tested all of the suspicious people will be proven wrong.

Proven wrong for where? How many times was Marion Jones tested? She never failed a single drug test, remember??

The real dopers are usually one step ahead of the test.
Na da dumb dopers dem dey capture

So you'll remain suspicious of her no matter what?

Yup. The same way I'd remain suspicious of Usain Bolts.

I like Bolts but what he did at the Beijing Olympics is a lil suspicious

[seara]

OK.

[achuzia-the-air-raid]

Stupid negroes!

Instead of developing and improving your own you are here tagging along with oyibo propaganda. Mr. follow follow yeye abeg make you open eyes. I can't hang with some of you dolts in real life, for real!