In the women’s 200 IM, China’s Shiwen Ye came from out of nowhere to win the gold medal. She went into the final turn in 5th-place, and didn’t stop until she was the first one to the final touch, which includes making up a 1.4 second gap on then-leader Ariana Kukors of the United States (who by the way is also the World Record holder).
The way that Ye swims the IM makes the race infinitely more exciting. No matter where swmimers are positioned going into the final 50, you know that Ye will be lurking. Take that rush you get when you see a great breaststroker charging the field on the third leg of an IM, and double it.
Her swimming is going to keep television producers on her toes, because in many instances she won’t even be in the camera-shot when entering the last 50. It’s also going to be great for more casual swim fans to watch, because as soon as the see Ye burst from the back of the field to the finish, and Rowdy Gaines gonig bizerk while it happens, in London, they’re going to be hooked.
This is not a new tactic to Ye. Even though she’s only 15-years old, she shows incredible patience and maturity. Moreso than any other IM’er in the world right now, she swims HER race. She doesn’t panic when she gets down by two body lengths. She gathers herself at that final wall and just takes off for the finish. It’s a very high-risk, high-reward strategy, and she executes it perfectly. Her 2:08.90 was easily a textile best, and it will be a wonder to see whether or not she can add even small improvements to her other strokes as she matures. If she does, this 200 IM World Record might suddenly not seem as untouchable as it once was.
I was curious about just HOW fast a 29.42 closing 50 split on a 200 IM really was.
- To close her 200 IM-winning performance at the Beijing Olympics, Australia’s Stephanie Rice (who is also a very fast closer) split only a 30.09. Earlier that year, at Australian Olympic Trials, she closed in a 29.69, but still not all that close to Ye.
- When closing her World Record performance in Rome, Ariana Kukors finished in 29.84. She is not a great closer, but to swim a 2:06.15 and still not best Ye on one of the lengths is impressive.
- In 2009 at French Nationals, in polyurethane, Camille Muffat closed her European-Record 200 IM in 29.14. Amongst the 50-fastest 200 IM’s ever, that’s the only one that had a better closing tick that Ye, and hers was in rubber (which presumably allows a swimmer to conserve more energy for a strong finish). Even with that finish, Muffat’s closing time was still only 2:09.37.
- In textile, it is even more incredibly rare to break 30-seconds to close. In fact, amongst major swims in major competitions, Ye is the only one I can find who has done it (and she’s done it more than once).
- The next closest closing split I can find (major criteria again applies) is Katinka Hosszu’s 30.03 from the European Championships last year.
- Ye’s closing 50 would be seeded ahead of 34 swimmers in the individual 50 freestyle that will take place later in the meet.
- Amongst the top 10 200 freestylers in 2010, only three swimmers (Federica Pellegrini, Agnes Mutina, and Femke Heemskerk) managed to finish their 200 FREE faster than Ye’s 29.42. 200 freestylers, in general, close much faster than 200 IM’ers (partially because, as our astute readers pointed out, the split on a 200 free is counted from foot contact off of a flip-turn, rather than hand contact off of a touch turn in the IM, which makes the split that much more impressive).
What a swim!
Yes she had an operation yet again on her hip/groin. She also finished her last year of school at qualified to go to university at 17.
A few years ago she was asked about 2012. She said she wanted herself & younger sister Bronte to make the team. Both have very good chances .
2009 was a really up and down year for Campbell. A few brilliant swims, but some lack of consistency because of, IIRC, health issues again.
Beachmouse -Cate campbell was successful all 2007 2008 2009.
in March 2010 she contracted Epsteins Barr (glandular fever ) & complications leading to post viral syndrome.
Do not put her in the ‘Vanished ‘ column- she can be found easily eg at the upcoming WUG – geting on with her life & still a 24.8 50m.
Can I make the obvious bad joke and say Ye’s slight build suggests that the Chinese have given up on HGH for performance enhancement?
And the precocious 14-16 year old girls are always a pretty mixed bag in terms of who goes on to superstardom, who plateaus, and who just vanishes, regardless of nationality. Cate Campbell is just the latest in a long line of swimmers who seemed to fall into that category, but has seen injuries keep her from regaining the brilliance she showed in Beijing in 2008. Or Dana Vollmer, who essentially totally vanished from the sport a few times as a late teenager after making her first US international team at age 13 and the Olympics at… Read more »
Wu Yanyan and Bin Lu are not exactly the best examples to use considering they were both busted for drugs.
Luo Xuejuan emerged in 2001 and was forced to retire in 2007 after doctors told her following a failed heart surgery that she’d risk her life if she tried to train for Olympic competition again.
Qui Hui emerged at 12 in 1997 and had on and off years but swam well enough to win three world short course titles in 2006.
I think Ye Shiwen is for real. All 5’3, 100 pounds of her.
Aswimfan – I wasn’t trying to “lump together all Chinese swimmers as the same.” Obviously, they are different individuals, from different provinces, with different ambitions and different personalities.
My point was this: the Chinese swimming system has a tendency to produce young swimmers whose performances are very volatile. So when thinking about the womens’ IMs in London next year, I wouldn’t bank on Ye Shiwen re-producing her performance from last night. And this is not only because she’s Chinese. It’s because she’s 15. With more established swimmers – Rice, Kukors, Coutts – we can reasonably expect them to be 2:09 +/- 2 seconds next year. But with Ye Shiwen, who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if she goes a 2:06… Read more »
I suspect that most of the Chinese athletes who are good enough to get tabbed for national and international level competition do indeed figure out how to enjoy the opportunities they have, but how many young girls do the sports schools churn through to get a Fu Mingxa, and how are those very young kids reintegrated into normal school and family life when that bottom 90% of them don’t make the cut for sports glory?
Swimming’s too rough of a sport to stick with if you aren’t loving it at least at some level. And asking a legal child to put in 20-30 of that kind of effort if they’re miserable in the pool isn’t right regardless of economic status of the place where they came from.
Having said that, I remember seeing a few ‘lighter side of Club Wolverine’ videos a while back and Wu Peng seemed to be having plenty of fun right along with the rest of that largely Can-Am training group.