Ye Shiwen accused of doping

Many members of the media have insinuated that Ye Shiwen, the 16 year old Chinese gold medalist in both the 200 Individual Medley and the 400 Individual Medley, has been doping.  Aside from the fact that she has achieved so much at such a young age, the media claims to be suspicious of Ye because she swam the final 50 meters of her 400 IM faster than Ryan Lochte, the gold medalist in the men's 400 IM, swam the final 50 of his race.  Ye's time of 28.93 was no doubt incredibly fast, however, in the past women have had similar splits in distance events.  Italy's Federica Pellegrini swam the final 50 meters of her world record breaking performance in the 200 freestyle at the 2009 world championships in 28.60, a time faster than that of Yi.  Kate Ziegler swam the final 50 of her record breaking performance in the 1500 meter freestyle in 29.27, just 3 tenths slower than Ye.  There have been several other swims by women in international competitions in which the final 50 has been similar to that of Ye.

Lochte's final 50 of 29.10 was fairly slow by his standards.  In the past he has swum several much faster splits.  Additionally half of the field in the finals of the 400 IM swam the final 50 faster than Ye.  Michael Phelps' last split in his world record breaking 400 IM at the Beijing games was 27.85, a substantially faster time than that of Ye.

It is extremely disrespectful and unprofessional that reporters have dampened what was supposed to be the happiest day of Ye's life, by publicly accusing her of doping, despite the fact that she has never tested positive for any performance enhancing drugs.  Those same reporters have never questioned Ruta Meilutyte, the 15 year old Lithuanian who went from being ranked 14th in the 100 breaststroke before the Olympics to winning the gold medal in the event.
I want to make it clear that I don't believe that Meilutyte is guilty of doping, but am bringing her up in order to demonstrate that the primary reason that the media is accusing Ye of doping is not solely her age nor her performance in the final 50 meters of her race.  Ye is being bombarded by doping accusations because of the Chinese history of doping.  Between 1990 and 1998, 28 Chinese swimmers tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.  Unfortunately, no matter what Ye does and no matter how many drug tests she passes,  her accomplishments will always be viewed with suspicion because of her country's history.

Day 4 of Swimming at the 2012 London Olympics

Women's 200 Meter Freestyle:

Allison Schmitt (AP)

The United States' Allison Schmitt, a product of the University of Georgia who trained with Michael Phelps and coach Bob Bowman in Baltimore in preparation for the Olympic games, submitted on the most dominant  and gutsiest performances of the Olympics thus far.  Schmitt strategically decided to pull ahead of the field early in the race, taking a full body length lead after the first 100 meters of the race.  None of her competitors were willing to challenge Schmitt early in the race, and by the time they picked up the pace, Schmitt was too far ahead for anyone to catch her.  Schmitt's time of 1:53.61 set a new Olympic record.  Camille Muffat of France, the gold medalist in the 400 freestyle, took the silver medal.

Men's 200 Meter Butterfly:

Chad Le Clos and Michael Phelps
(Reuters)

Michael Phelps of the United States was attempting to become the first swimmer to ever win the same event in three consecutive Olympics.  After Phelps' poor performance in the 400 IM, many wondered whether Phelps was still capable of producing the kind of performances he frequently displayed at the past two Olympics, in which he combined for 14 gold medals.  Despite leading from the beginning of the race, Phelps was never able to pull far away from Takeshi Matsuda of Japan and Chad Le Clos of South Africa.  While in the past Phelps would have broken far away from his competitors in the final 75 meters of the swim, this incarnation of Phelps lacked the same strong finish.  Although Phelps seemingly had yet another gold medal in the books, he was too far from the wall at the time that he took his final stroke.  While Phelps glided into wall, Le Clos properly timed his finish and was able to outtouch Phelps by five one hundredths of a second.  Le Clos stopped the clock with a time of 1:52.96, claiming another gold medal for South Africa which has had a tremendous start to the London games.  Matsuda took home the bronze medal.

Women's 200 Meter Individual Medley:

Ye Shiwen (Reuters)

China's Ye Shiwen, the gold medalist in the 400 IM, was caught in the midst of a tight race at the 150 meter mark of the 200 IM.  The 16 year old had yet another fantastic finish, pulling far away from the field in the freestyle leg of the swim.  Ye broke an Olympic record with her time of 2:07.57.  Alicia Coutts of Australia was the silver medalist, and the United States' Caitlin Leverenz took home the bronze.

Men's 4x200 Meter Freestyle Relay:

Michael Phelps and the United States' men's 4x 200 freestyle relay team destroyed the competition, keeping up the American tradition of dominating the event.  Ryan Lochte led off for the United States and made a superb field look ordinary by using his extraordinary turns to take a full body length lead over the field.  Connor Dwyer and Ricky Berens followed, with each one extending the lead.  By the time Phelps hopped in to swim the anchor leg for the U.S. there was no doubt that the Americans would add to their gold medal tally.  After winning the gold medal, Phelps' career Olympic medal count stands at 19, the most ever, adding to his legacy as the greatest Olympian of all time.  Yannick Agnel of France and Sun Yang of China, anchored for their countries, claiming the silver and bronze medals respectively

Michael Phelps, Connor Dwyer, Ryan Lochte and Ricky Berens
(USA Today)

Day 1 of Swimming at the 2012 London Olympics

Men's 400 Meter IM:

Ryan Lochte

American Ryan Lochte's absolutely dominant performance in the 400 IM was the main headline of day 1 of the London Olympics.  Lochte's time of 4:05.18 blew away the field, defeating Brazilian silver medalist Thiago Pereira by nearly three and a half seconds.  Lochte was first from the opening leg of the swim, and pulled far away from the field in the backstroke leg of the event.  Lochte's world-renowned flip turns gave him a huge advantage over the opposition.  The first major shock of the Olympics was that American Michael Phelps, the two time defending Olympic champion and world record holder in the event, did not medal, placing 4th.  17 year old Kosuke Hagino of Japan who had the fastest time in the preliminaries won the bronze medal. 

Men's 400 Meter Freestyle:

Sun Yang

China's Sun Yang won the gold medal in the 400 Freestyle with a time of 3:40.14, missing out on breaking Paul Biedermann's world record in the event by under 0.1 seconds.  South Korea's Park Taehwan, the defending Olympic champion, led for the first 300 meters and won the silver medal.  Park was disqualified in the preliminaries of the event, however after video review was reinstated in the finals of the event.  The U.S.'s Peter Vanderkaay won the bronze medal in what will likely be his final Olympics.

Women's 400 Meter IM:

Ye Shiwen

China's Ye Shiwen put on a tremendous show in winning the gold medal in the 400 IM.  The 16 year old broke Stephanie Rice's world record with a time of 4:28.43.  At the 300 meter mark American Elizabeth Beisel had a full body length lead over Ye, who's unbelievable finish left the silver medalist Beisel a full three body length's behind by the end.  Shwen's final 50 meters of freestyle were incredibly even faster than those of Ryan Lochte, the winner of the men's 400 IM.

Women's 4x100 Meter Freestyle relay:

The Australian women won the gold medal with the Netherlands coming in second place.  Despite having the lead after 300 meters, the American women were passed in the final leg of the relay by both international swimming powers.  The Americans have not won this event since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Australian 4x100 freestyle relay team