China’s Shiwen Ye had an incredible 400 IM on Saturday. She broke the world record by a full second, she closed with a 100 freestyle faster than Ryan Lochte used to win the men’s gold in the same event. The hyperboles have been levied.
But upon a first skim of the race, it might not be clear just how amazing this race was, but for missing a very small detail: she doesn’t do a pullout on her back to breast turn.
Ye said in post-race interviews that her walls are by far the weakest part of her swim. But that back to breast turn is some kind of animal. Not only does she eschew the “bucket turn” (sort of like a flip turn) that most swimmers of this level use; she doesn’t do an underwater pullout! She does one from breaststroke to breaststroke, but she skips the pullout coming off of the backstroke wall.
Needless to say, this is a most unusual strategy. However, one could argue that even such a small strategy could play part of the factor for why her closing 100 free is so good. She is able to save a lot of breath headed into the breaststroke, which precedes the freestyle leg.
No finals video has popped up online yet, but it can be seen clearly in this online video from prelims. She used the same strategy in finals, when setting the World Record.
Fast forward to the 1:34.00 mark to see.
Video evidence, via NBCOlympics.com.
Thanks to Reed Shimberg for contributing to this report.
Craig Lord is on the case…
“Six weeks ago, a 16-year-old former team-mate of Ye’s, Li Zhesi, tested positive for erythropoeitin (EPO), the blood-booster. The case was announced by the China Anti-Doping Agency (Chinada), which cited “an out-of-competition test carried out on March 31″. No suspension has yet been announced nor was FINA, the international federation, aware of the case when asked about it yesterday.
But for the ban, Li would most surely have been here. She turned 13 the day before her home Games got under way in Beijing in 2008. A year later, at 14, she became a world champion as a member of the China women’s 4×100 metres medley quartet.
Put Li together with Ye’s freakish performance… Read more »
Doesn’t it seem odd that Ye can come home 2+ seconds faster at the end of the 400IM than any of the females in the 400M Free field? Along the same lines if she is clean she should take up that 400m Free:)
Drugs.
It really makes a lot of sense in especially the 400 IM. Why gain a couple tenths on the turn if you lose several seconds on the swimming part because your lungs are screaming for air and you have to slow down to avoid choking on lactic acid?
In a race as hard as the 400 IM where everything is won and lost on your swimming intensity, this is not a small factor at all
Yeah, and that same kinda thing happened with me and that super cool Paralympian commercial Mel posted last week.
Oh, and none of my comments are posting anymore. This is typed out on a phone and it blows.
Dear SwimSwam…
You used my post from the article “Opinion: On Ye Shiwen and Doping – Davis Wuolle’s take on the Ye Shiwen world record”….and did not give me the proper credit I deserve.
I pointed out that Shiwen Ye did not use a traditional breaststroke pullout, which maintained the flow of oxygen, and kept the momentum up coming off the wall. (Big energy saved for later on in the race!)
Dear JCoach…Dr. Evil says you are wrong!! Google It …!!!!
DR EVIL HAS SPOKEN!!
Nope, we used the text message we received from Reed Shimberg, who was credited at the bottom. :-). Great minds think alike??
Confused. What am I wrong about?
+1 to John.
If Shiwen Ye was NOT Chinese, she would be praised for going beast mode on the last leg.
Instead, she’s Chinese and now being accused by some for doping.
What she did was kind of ridiculous, but this is the Olympics, athletes train years for this $***, of course extraordinary things can happen.
Just be happy for her or not. No need to bring hate into this.
And for some individuals who say it’s not racist to be skeptics. It’s true, but when your skepticism is just focused on just one group of people (say the Chinese), it’s racism.
Being racist does and can affect one’s bias.
i’m chinese. it’s perfectly fine to think she might have cheated. this is a time when so many athletes from every country, especially the US cheat. cheating is rampant in baseball and cycling, and it exists in every sport. so why can’t the chinese cheat? they also cheated in many olympics. if a girl is beating men in a sport, then it is perfectly ok to think she might have cheated. it isn’t racist to think they cheat, especially since many chinese athletes cheat, and again, because so many athletes around the world cheat. my white friends accuse white baseball players of cheating, so is it really racist if they also accuse a chinese swimmer? all cheating eventually has to… Read more »
Thanks I agree with much of this except have a question about “especially the U.S.”. Can I assume you mean including doping-heavy sports such as baseball/track and field? Because in swimming U.S.A. doesn’t have a higher per cent of dopers than say, China or Brazil. I think that’s what u meant but I wanted to clarify, thanks.
The Chinese have a history of cheating with their women swim team so it’s only natural to think that someone dropping almost 5 seconds and swimming that last 100m faster than the mens winner would be doping. I don’t care if it’s politically incorrect and wouldn’t at all be suprised if it comes out that she was taking some banned substance. Also, agree with LIQUIDASSETS the US rarely has issues with banned substances compared to Brazil and China.
I’m American and for the longest, I questioned whether Phelps was doping. Why did I think such a thing? Because he was an extraordinary talent. When people do superhuman things, others wonder how it could be. It’s only natural to wonder. Race and patriotism are really quite irrelevant here.
Hating has nothing to do with it. Pull your head out!
Chinese population :1,344,130,000
US population 311,591,917
source: google search
Unless she is found to be doping. She is playing fair and square.
Hate all you want. There’s NO EVIDENCE what so ever that she is doping.
That wasn’t even mentioned or hinted at in this article, why bring it up?! And really what does the population of a country have to do with how good that country’s best 400 IMer is?
not yet….
Barry Bonds was never caught doping.