China has a new sports hero in Ye Shiwen, who blew past world and Olympic records in recent days in a trio of stunning performances that her supporters attribute to her determination, powerful build and oversize feet.
So when a few figures in the swimming world questioned her accomplishmentscapped Tuesday by an Olympic record-setting gold in the 200m individual medleya nation swelling with pride over its growing tally of medals leapt to her defense.
Speechless! Envy should not taint the innocence of Chinas national talent, wrote one Chinese citizen on Sina Weibo, Chinas Twitter-like microblogging service. Yes own Weibo account had about 200,000 followers as of Tuesday, and her account was filled with messages of support.
Eyebrows arched in the swimming world when Ye set a world record Saturday with 4:29.43 in the 400-meter race and followed it with an Olympic record Monday with a time of 2:08.39 in the 200m medley. On Saturday her speed during the last 50 meters even exceeded that of male U.S. medal winner Ryan Lochte.
Skeptics noted that Chinese swimmers have been caught in the past using performance-enhancing substances. World Swimming Coaches Association executive director John Leonard set off a firestorm Monday when he said publicly that he found Yes win disturbing.
Yes 400-medley performance was either the greatest swim in history, Leonard said Tuesday, or something that is not correct. He added that he had received several emails accusing him of racism after his comments were published.
Yes father and coaches defended the 16-year-oldl, who they say is strong-spirited but sometimes timid and self-doubting, and who reads and cross-stitches on the weekends.
Some suspicion is expected from the West, which typically questions Chinese athletes and tends to be a little arrogant, said her father, Ye Qingsong, in an interview. He added, Chinese athletes have been tested and the results will prove [the truth].
At a press conference after Tuesdays race, reporters peppered Ye with questions about doping, including an outright inquiry as to whether she engaged in it. Through a translator, she said, Absolutely not.
Standing next to Ye in the press conference was American Caitlin Leverenz, who won bronze in the race. When a reporter asked Leverenz if she believed a female swimmer could beat a mans time in the final 50 meters of a medleyas Ye did Saturday nightLeverenz nodded at Ye and said, She proved it is possible, a response that prompted loud applause from some Chinese journalists.
Ye won further backing earlier Tuesday when Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, said shes clean. Thats the end of the story. Citing the World Anti-Doping Agency, he said it is unwise for any coach, any administrator, indeed anybody, to come out with suspicious comments, verging on allegations, about an athlete who has proved to be clean and followed the WADA code.
Asked about the results of Yes doping test, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the process was confidential. We would only start to comment if we had any adverse findings, he said. You can draw your own conclusions.
Statistics suggest Yes performance in the 400m medley, which first prompted these questions, wasnt unprecedented. Her time of 4:28.43 was an improvement of about 2.44% on her time from the 2011 world championships, the last major international event she swam in. But in the same pool on Sunday in a different racethe semifinals of the 100-meter breaststrokeRuta Meilutyte, a 15-year-old Lithuanian, shaved two seconds off of her pre-Olympic personal best. That performance represented a 3.1% improvement.
The raw speed of Yes final 50-meter freestyle isnt unprecedented, either. In last years World Championships in Shanghai, Great Britains Rebecca Adlington swam the final 50 meters of the 800m freestyle final in 28.91 seconds, .02 second faster than Ye and 19 hundredths faster than Lochtes time from the 400m medley.
Australian coach Ken Wood, who trained the Australian Olympic team in the 1980s and has worked with the Chinese Swimming Association since 2008, has been training Ye for the past two years: cultivating her breathing technique, improving her stroke and speeding her turns. Ye, along with her other teammates, has been tested regularly, though at random, for performance enhancers, Wood said, noting that nearly every two to three weeks an international tester has been in his pool in Australia and China.
Yes proportions give her an edge, Wood says. At 5 feet 8 and 141 pounds, Ye has better power-to-weight ratio than counterparts in other countries, he said. There are also her handswhich the 6-foot-2 Wood says are as big as hisand her size 10.5 feet, which turbocharge her strokes.
Yes win is the product of a broader effort by the Chinese government to stand at the top of the medal count at the Olympics. After the 2000 Olympics, leaders launched an effort dubbed Project 119, boosting funding in swimming, gymnastics and weightlifting.
From the scenic eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, Ye entered the local Chenjinglun Sports School at the age of 6. She joined the local team from the province of Zhejiang after school, then the Chinese national team in 2010.
London Olympics - WSJ.com