6 Year Old Chinese Swimmer Ye Shiwen Swam a Faster 50 Meters than Ryan Lochte … A London Summer Olympic Doping Scandal in the Making

You’ve come a long way baby, but not that far as many skeptics question the 16 year old Chinese swimmers eye opening time and not believable.

16 year old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen obliterated the competition on Saturday at the London Summer Olympic games as she swam the 400 meter individual medley in a world-record time. But was it too good to be true? The swim was described as “unbelievable” and “disturbing”. Not only did she take more than a second off the world’s record, she actually swam the  final 100m of freestyle, in which she recorded a split time of 58.68sec, that aroused Leonard’s suspicion. Ye Shiwen also swam the last 50m she was quicker than the American Ryan Lochte who participated in the men’s 400m IM. Really, c,mon man. Who really believes that is possible?

China has become embroiled in the first doping controversy of the London Games after one of the world’s most respected coaches described the swimming prodigy Ye Shiwen’s gold medal performance as “unbelievable” and “disturbing”.

The American John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said the 16-year-old’s performance was “suspicious” and said it brought back “a lot of awful memories” of the Irish swimmer Michelle Smith’s race in the same event at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Smith, now Michelle de Bruin, was banned for four years in 1998 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

Ye stunned world swimming on Saturday by winning gold in the 400m individual medley in a world-record time. It was her final 100m of freestyle, in which she recorded a split time of 58.68sec, that aroused Leonard’s suspicion. Over the last 50m she was quicker than the American Ryan Lochte, who won the men’s 400m individual medley in the second-fastest time in history .

Still think the time is legit? Ye was more than seven seconds faster in the Olympic 400m individual medley final than she had been in the World Championship equivalent last July. Oh yeah, in a sport that is timed in 10ths and 100′s of seconds, some how this Chinese swimmer bettered her time by 7 seconds. This brings up questions of previous Chinese swimmers being caught doping. Of course the Chinese responded to the claims as bias. Really? When no other coach has seen anything like this, every one else is guilty. As if the Chinese federation would admit they were doing something wrong. Please.

Asked about the accusation that she was doping, Ye replied: “The Chinese team keep very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem.”

Leonard also questioned why Ye was not competing in the 200m or 400m freestyle, despite her phenomenal performance in that discipline in the medley, saying that was one of “a whole bunch of other questions”.

Leonard said that the consensus in the coaching community he represents was that the swim was “unbelievable”. “I use that word in its precise meaning. At this point it is not believable to many people,” he added.

“No coach that I spoke to yesterday could ever recall seeing anything remotely like that in a world level competition,” Leonard continued. “Where someone could out-split one of the fastest male swimmers in the world, and beat the woman ahead of her by three-and-a-half body lengths. All those things, I think, legitimately call that swim into question.”