“Oh YE, of little faith” is a biblical term which was often directed as disapproval towards the Disciples of Christ when they had any doubts about his divinity. How ironic is this ancient phrase as we now find ourselves in doubt of YE of China!
Are the Chinese swimmers, coaches and fans of Chinese swimming accusing the US youngsters of “doping” as they break into the world scene…? There is a certain Katie Ledecky, who in 2010 was swimming a mediocre 8:58.86 for the 800m freestyle, while the “accused” Ye Shiwen was winning the Asian Games in the 400 Individual Medley with a very strong 4:33.79! This of course just before heading off to win 2 silver medals at the World Championships (albeit, short course meters) in Dubai in December 2010. Ledecky went from 8:58.86 in 2010 to 8:19.78 at the 2012 trials…that’s a 39 second drop!!! Ye already swam a 4:33 in 2010 to a 4:28 in London, a 5 second drop in 2 years, seems reasonable. Furthermore, do you think the top breaststroke swimmers and coaches of a 1.3 billion person country like China have ever even heard of Scott Weltz?
Before we go totally off the charts with accusations and pointing fingers–maybe just some numbers and facts…this way all the people who just like to see their own comments posted on social media and/or on our wonderful website, will have more information to make a “POINT or COUNTERPOINT” (lol, eat your hearts out Gary and David).
Ye Shiwen was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the 6th largest city of China. With a population of 8.7 million people (slightly larger than New York), she was detected very early as a promising swimmer. She started young–at 6 years of age, like so many young American, British, Australian, Russian, Canadian and Japanese swimmers. Now the difference. China is a communist country where many things are different and we just simply can’t understand. Have there been wrongdoings in the past…probably. We will never fully understand what it means to be an 8 year old “super-talent” in China, leave your family (or even forced away), train all day, everyday, and not expect to build some kind of small swimming machine! This is not a “needle in the haystack,” it is more a case of a “crochet hook in a small bail of hay.” Is it not reasonable to assume that with the numbers of people and swimmers and coaches and money in China…that this IS POSSIBLE!!
Then we have to address Ye and her training. She has been known to spend considerable amounts of time between China and Australia, training with the same coaches Down Under who have worked with other Chinese success stories. Chinese swimmers have even made their way west…to Dave Salo and Mike Bottom. Is it not possible that the Chinese swimmers actually talk to each other and exchange ideas about technique and training philosophies? Do you not think that once on a Chinese National camp, Wu Peng told Yang Sun, “Hey Sun, we did this really tough but awesome Mike Bottom workout…you should try it!” Have the western coaching personalities created their own monster…their own PHELPENSTEIN??
Do any of you remember Chris Martin of Florida Swimming fame? He was a very successful coach who moved his talents to the UK and Scotland for many years. Most recently he is running a program in Shanghai, China. Is there a relationship to some American-UK knowledge shared with the Chinese? Maybe we should know even more facts before all the accusations.
And now for that last 50 of Ye Shiwen–you know the one she out split Ryan Lochte. Any athlete out there has either read about, or even experienced “The Zone.” Is this the explanation for her super fast last 50? I don’t know. It is not the first time she has had an amazing freestyle leg on her Individual Medley, she performed the same magic last year at Worlds splitting 29.42 in the 200 to become World Champion (she also split 29.88 on the final 50 of her 400 IM to finish 5th). Even though the comparison Lochte vs. Ye is completely absurd, if they had turned together at the 350, for sure Ryan would win, and for sure he would swim 27 something, and for sure Mr. Phelps would have lost the untouchable 4:o3 World Record!
Chris Morgan is a swimming coach in search of the next pool, the next set, and the most creative workouts. Follow him on Twitter @swim4chris
li zheshi was caught by the chinese anti doping agency and kenneth you,re not chinese
Why are we saying that Chinese swimming brought suspicion on itself because of the ’90s?
Speaking as a Chinese, anything coming out of the Chinese government is to be suspected.
End of story.
China is CERTAINLY not done with doping in their swim competitions. Ye’s teammate was caught as recently as 4 months ago doping with EPO. Doping in Ye’s case is a VERY REAL possibility that would only be overlooked by the naive. OH, BTW, for all you ‘she’s already tested clean! types’, you have to test right after the race you won for the test to actually have meaning. She could have taken something the morning of the race!
Isn’t EPO tested for? Pardon the ignorance, but I thought that was pretty easily detected these days.
Yes, but it only is detectable for 19 hours after IV use according to the infamous Victor Conte. He says its still easy to use and not get caught:
http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1126198
Victor also points out that EPO is not only useful for endurance athletes. EPO helps sprinters as well which explains why 50 swimmer Li Zhesi would have been using it (that answers that mystery for me).
China is CERTAINLY not done with doping in their swim competitions. Ye’s teammate was caught as recently as 4 months ago doping with EPO. Doping in Ye’s case is a VERY REAL possibility would only be overlooked by the niave.
Matt, I am sure there has been significant progress, but the problem is not gone. If you think so, please explain Li Zhesi who tested positive for EPO, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-06/10/c_131642593.htm. I have no doubt that she too was talented.
Before you say, “yeah, well, there WAS a positive test…”, recognize that passing drug tests does not mean that an athlete is clean, only that they are “clean” at the moment of testing. Nathan Jendrick, makes this excellent point here: http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/World/3148.asp?q=%20Mind:27s%20Wrong%20to%20Accuse,%20Fine%20to%20be%20Skeptical;%20Exclusive%20Victor%20Conte%20Comments
Even WADA admits that “that 40% of recent positives have resulted from intelligence, rather than simple test-tube discovery”, as can be read here: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/25/sports/la-sp-oly-dwyre-wada-20120726
I imagine (or rather hope) that some of this intelligence comes from looking at anomalous performances.
Chris Martin of Florida Swimming fame? More like infamy! He all but destroyed the team with his mind games. Mitch Ivey had already fractured the team, but Martin broke it. Go look at the trail of swimmers he drove to transfer: Janie Wagstaff, Lea Loveless, Ashley Tappin, Claudia Franco, and the list goes on. An environment in a communist nation where swimmers are instruments of the state with little personal freedoms and have to do as they’re told is perfect for his egomania.
Thank you for being the voice of reason. Great article and the correct perspective. I am currently coaching in China and the amount of talent that is present in this country is massive. The resources that they have put towards developing their cities has also been turned towards sports. While some of their methods are far from cutting edge, they are progressing along with the rest of the world. The U.S. is not the same today as it was in 1994 when China was caught doping, but China is not even remotely close today to being the same place it was in 1994. Progress is being made and with it the success of Ye and Sun among many, many others.
Since the French guy beat Ryan L. twice, he must be jacked up on some undetectable substance too… Please…
Having suspicions is one thing (I mean who doesn’t), but when you go on the news and cry foul without proof. That is completely wrong. And it makes you look completely like a sore @$$ loser.
What happened to being innocent until proved guilty.
Just let her enjoy her winnings.
If she is doping, sooner or later she’ll be caught and her medals & reputation will be stripped anyways.
So no need to talk like your own personal accusations are proven facts.
There’s a difference between fast swims in a gender (i.e. a fast swim by the French that beat Ryan Lochte, which was just a great swim), then a woman outsplitting a man in the highest echelons of our sport.
True enough, innocent until proven guilty. There will always be suspicion. After all, even the East Germans denied doping.