China’s Ye Shiwen still being haunted

She is one of the best swimmers among women in London Olympics 2012. She won two gold medals on the strength of the great performance she came up with. But there are people who are questioning her success at the world stage. They say it came too sudden, too fast.

It is not that she never won any major world swimming medal. In the last Asian Games held in her own country, the teenaged girl who is known for her broad smiles and giggles won two gold medals. Asian Games are among the well respected games and if an athlete can win a gold there he was equally capable of winning a gold in Olympic too.

John Leonard, one of the top swimming coaches in the US had pointed a finger at the young girl’s integrity by suggesting that she was guilty of doping. He later went public with his claim and told Guardian that he was sure that the girl had used performance enhancement drug. But by the way he had no proof against the girl or her coach.

Meanwhile Olympic committee officials as well as FINA officials have came to her defense saying that no one can suspect the anti-doping tests carried out over a period of months and anyone using any doping technique is instantly thrown out of the Games.

British Olympic officials have also defended the champion girl. Lord Moynihan says, “She’s been through the World Anti-Doping Agency’s programme and she’s clean. That’s the end of the story. Ye Shiwen deserves recognition”.

Meanwhile her fans have swung to her defence. A reader says, “Last year Rebecca Adlington had a last 50 meter split of 28.91, 0.02 faster than both Ye and Lochte, and adlington did it in a 800m freestyle race, twice the distance of Ye’s 400 IM. How would the dope John Leonard explain Adlington’s fast time? Leonard is a disgrace to swimming and to this country.”

Another reader says, “At the age 15 years and 9 months, Michael Phelps broke the 400-m freestyle world record held by Ian Thorpe, who himself set the prior WR at the age 16 years, 10 months. In doing so Phelps lowered his own prior record by over 4 seconds. One other thing, girls’ bodies develop earlier than boys’. Physically a 16 year girl has almost a full grown body, whereas a 15 year boy is still just a boy. In that aspect, what Phelps did was even more unwordly, more suspicious”.

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Posted by admin on August 4, 2012. Filed under Life & Style. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry