Janis Mackey Frayer, CTV
BEIJING - For all of the years of preparation the Olympic Games represent, it took only 4 minutes and 28.43 seconds for a young Chinese swimmer to steal the spotlight. Ye Shiwen finished the 400 metre individual medley faster than anybody in Olympic history – woman or man. That she is 16 years old makes her gold medal feat all the more stunning.
It took even less time for dizzied observers to hint that Ye had somehow cheated. The very punctuation on her record-shattering race was a BBC commentator questioning how she could perform so well. The disbelief swirled and built and peaked when John Leonard, the American director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, stopped short of leveling allegations of drug use by describing Ye’s win as “disturbing”.
Across China, the reaction is furious and supporters have taken to the internet to rise to her defense. They cite “jealousy” as the reason for the backlash and point to Britain’s inability to reach the medals podium.
“This is only because she is Chinese!” wrote one user on Weibo, the popular social networking platform that is China’s equivalent to Twitter.
Another user said, “The English media are just too short-sighted and narrow-minded.” Others lamented: “This is not the Olympic spirit at all.”
The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s anti-doping chief, Jiang Zhixue, as saying athletes including swimmers have taken drugs tests “nearly 100 times” since arriving in London.
“We never questioned Michael Phelps when he bagged eight gold medals in Beijing,” Mr. Jiang reportedly said.
Ye was virtual unknown in elite swimming ranks until her teammate, a world champion, tested positive for drugs and was banned. That elevated Ye, recruited in 2003 for having larger hands and feet than other kids, to prodigy status. The People’s Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party, praised Ye’s “rocket-like” rise to stardom.
No swimmer at the London Games has openly accused Ye though China is not permitted much naivete given a history of doping scandals in the pool. The 90s were not a proud decade, with nearly a dozen Chinese swimmers banned for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
In Ye’s case, her coaches credit dedication and rigorous training, some of which she did in Australia. In an interview with China News Service, Ye, who is 5 feet 8 inches and weighs 141 pounds, said her results came “from hard work and scientific training”.
“I would never use any banned drugs,'' she said. “The Chinese people have clean hands.”
A final note: In a country where Olympic gold is the standard, Ye Shiwen's victory (or the controversy) was not the story that dominated Chinese headlines today. It was the "shameful" loss of Zhou Jun, a 17-year old weightlifter who was a late addition to the Chinese roster. Coverage of her failure to win a medal blamed her "inexperience" and the politics behind China's selection procedure.
Newspapers also highlighted Wu Jingbiao who won the silver in 56kg men's weighlifting. Wu cried when accepting the medal and apologized to his country for "not getting the gold".