Monday 30 July 2012

Ye Shiwen's Homecoming 100m Split - A Different View

So, if you haven't heard, Ye Shiwen is faster than Ryan Lochte. 

I mean Lochte beat her time by over 23 seconds in the 400 IM on day one, but because she had a closing 50m faster than Lochte she is cheating doping superhuman clearly faster than Lochte. It couldn't be down to the fact that Lochte absolutely flew on the first 300m and hung on out on his own, while Ye Shiwen had a race plan based on conserving energy for 300m, blasting her freestyle and had someone to chase down?

No, it can't be. I mean Lochte flips tyres and does strongman workouts, Florida runs "Stadiums". Do they even train in China?

As Gina Heyn points out on twitter, guess who had a faster closing 50m than both Ye Shiwen and Ryan Lochte.... Rebecca Adlington. In the 800 free final in Shanghai last year Adlington had a final 50 split of 28.91, two hundredths of a second faster than Ye Shiwen's closing split. Nobody questioned Adlington after her swim or how she was able to swim a "man's" split at the end of a gruelling 800 free, nor should they.

I had hoped after China's strong performance in Shanghai that we wouldn't be immediately reverting back to the doping argument after every great Chinese swim, but I guess we still do.

At least Google Chrome tries to protect you against it...

Insecure content. One way to put it.

17 comments:

  1. Right on! Double standards as usual. Dana Vollmer broke WC and improved by 7 sec in six months, no suspicions of PED ( US Wonderwoman!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah yes, Dana with her magical 'gluten free' diet..

      Delete
  2. Right on! Double standards as usual. Dana Vollmer broke WC and improved by 7 sec in six months, no suspicions of PED ( US Wonderwoman!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it's pretty much racism at this point to accuse the Chinese and not other nations, so Craig Lord sucks for that. But speedendurance also sucks for not seeming to believe that anyone dopes. Every positive test is a mistake by the evil testers and the athlete excuses are believed according to speedendurance. So you two are just as bad as each other for lacking discernment and objectivity.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL ... that captured google chrome image is pure gold!

    To anon above, not sure how you drew the conclusion that the speedendurance blogger does not concern doping seriously, by China in particular.

    As you may not be aware, news about Chinese female sprinter Li Zhesi testing positive was featured prominently on this site just last month:
    http://speedendurance.blogspot.com/2012/06/chinese-sprinter-li-zhesi-tests.html

    Craig Lord, on the other hand, does seem to thrive on his newly found yellow journalism more than ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jessica Hardy, Fred Bousquet, Cielo, etc.

      Delete
  5. I've been really disappointed with SwimNews's coverage this Olympics. Spelling mistakes I can overlook, constant database error messages just happen sometimes, and sentences longer than a Twilight novel are hilarious, but one-sided reporting like this? Especially when Craig's reporting on Chinese domestic swimming is usually so detailed. Does he not remember last year's Worlds where Ye's final 50 on the 200IM was quicker than most of the men's 200 free semi final splits? It's good to ask questions of rapid improvement but no-one is asking the same of Ruta Meilutyte are they?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great point about Meilutyte. She's not Chinese... she trains in England... so apparently no need to undermine her achievements.

      Maybe if she splits 1/8th of her race faster than a fatigued Ryan Lochte then she will be scrutinised.

      Delete
    2. she will be questioned once soni loses the gold in 100 breast stroke

      Delete
  6. here you go!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kind of pathetic for 'dolphin Lochte'in 200m free. Completely locked out of medal, actually he made the sarcastic remark of Ye's last leg speed and her WR feat that taken out context and alluded her performance to PED and even genetic engineering like X-men!that caused a negative feeling to all swimming fans and esp. Chinese folks throughout the world that are contrary to Olympic spirit. Oh! Soni lost to 15 yrs prodigy from a tiny nation!!

      Delete
  7. Tom W: the tone of this blog entry is flippant and annoying to read. You write: "Do they even train in China?" I understand that you disagree with critics who have immediately claimed Shiwen must be doping or that women are not capable of swimming as fast as men, but to deliberately insinuate - as you do here - that those doing the criticizing believe the Chinese swimmers do not train hard is an unfair, dishonest, and manipulative way to argue. Don't do it. It's not good writing. Try to be better than these critics.

    Also, regarding the accusations of racism. I know lots of folks are quick to accuse people of racism, even when no hard evidence of it exists (as in this case), but I think people should be a lot more careful with this kind of accusation. It is a serious thing to call someone a racist. For instance, we must all accept that in the last 20 years the Chinese have had a huge number of swimmers caught doping. That is a fact, not the imagination of some racist critic gone wild. Also, many people are pointing out that when there is such a huge improvement - 5 seconds - in a swimmer's personal best time in a single race (not over 6 months) that lasts about 4 minutes, 30 seconds, it raises suspicious. So, we can look at the situation: the Chinese swimming program has a recent history of doping and we see here a Chinese swimmer doing something shocking... Of course many will point to doping based on these two facts. In the end, this is not racism, but rather the way some people will logically proceed to a conclusion. People are free to disagree with it, but to disagree because they feel the critic is racist is a poor reason. I should say that I am part Chinese.

    That said, I hope Ye Shiwen is not doping.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Is it as unfair as publicly tarnishing a 16 year old girl's achievement, the day before she is due to swim in an Olympic final? The remark was flippant, sure, but not nearly as serious as jumping to unproven conclusions.

    No other young, talented swimmer at the Olympics has had to sit in front of the world's media and answer questions about her alleged doping (with no positive test), it is outrageous.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree that this puts Ye Shiwen (probably) unfairly in the spotlight, which may disadvantage her in the upcoming final. Let's hope it doesn't affect her.

    As for whether accusing someone of doping is worse than accusing someone, even indirectly, of racism without evidence ("She's not Chinese... she trains in England... so apparently no need to undermine her achievements.")...well, I cannot say.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Much ado about nothing.

    http://www.omegatiming.com/File/Download?id=00010A080034000000FFFFFFFFFFFF01

    timing splits of everyone in the pool from the 2010 Beijing leg of the FINA world cup.

    ReplyDelete
  11. A deliberate attempt to unsettle a 16 yr old

    ReplyDelete
  12. Can you tell us more about this? I'd love to find out more details.

    http://83.80.19.223/groups/kipodtouch/wiki/e0190/optimum_penis_enlargement_penis_extender.html

    http://juanfc.lcc.uma.es/groups/wikideprueba/wiki/809c9/penis_enlargement_plastic_surgery_pre_and_post.html

    ReplyDelete