London Summer Olympics 2012
- Thread starter Blitzo
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Medal count between China and U.S. is neck to neck again at 23... Things are getting interesting.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
It's as good a start as China could reasonable have hoped for, but it's still early days yet. The field and track events have not yet started, and I expect the US to get a good haul of medals from there whereas China only have a shot in a very few events.
It's a bit of a shame that Team GB has been under-performing thus far, and several events they had a good hope in turned out with disappointing results. Hopefully they will pick up a few medals and some golds when indoor cycling and rowing gets underway.
Something I really want to see but which I haven't been able to find anywhere would be a year-on-year comparison chart for all the events listing which country won what at Beijing and now London. That would give people a good idea of how well their country is doing compared to last time, and would also help to highlight events to what out for if you are only casually interested and do not want to go to the trouble of compiling such a chart yourself.
Maybe if we all write to the BBC/CNN and suggest it, they might get an intern to look into it.
It's a bit of a shame that Team GB has been under-performing thus far, and several events they had a good hope in turned out with disappointing results. Hopefully they will pick up a few medals and some golds when indoor cycling and rowing gets underway.
Something I really want to see but which I haven't been able to find anywhere would be a year-on-year comparison chart for all the events listing which country won what at Beijing and now London. That would give people a good idea of how well their country is doing compared to last time, and would also help to highlight events to what out for if you are only casually interested and do not want to go to the trouble of compiling such a chart yourself.
Maybe if we all write to the BBC/CNN and suggest it, they might get an intern to look into it.
broadsword
Brigadier
I like that this Leonard guy gets ever more absurd.
broadsword
Brigadier
Have you been played into the hands of the western media by using total medals rather than the color?
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
31 July 2012 Last updated at 13:56 ET
China swimmer Ye Shiwen clean, says BOA boss Moynihan
Lord Moynihan: "It's regrettable that there is so much speculation out there in the press"
Teenage Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen is not a drug cheat, the British Olympic Association's chairman has said, after a US coach cast doubt on her world record-breaking swim.
Lord Colin Moynihan said Ye, 16, had passed drug tests, was "clean" and deserved recognition for her talent.
Ye smashed her personal best by at least five seconds in the 400m Medley.
Senior US coach John Leonard said her performance was disturbing and hinted that doping could have been involved.
Mr Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said the performance reminded him of the East German women swimmers in the 1980s, who were doping on a systematic basis.
"History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, unbelievable, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," he told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
But Ye, who will compete later in the 200m Medley final, has strongly defended herself and denied that she would ever use banned substances.
China's anti-doping chief has said Chinese athletes have undergone nearly 100 drugs tests since arriving in London, and that not a single Chinese athlete had tested positive.
Former swimmers, other Olympic champions and experts have all given their support to Ye.
Lord Moynihan told a news conference that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was "on top of the game".
"She's been through Wada's programme and she's clean. That's the end of the story. Ye Shiwen deserves recognition for her talent," he said.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials also insisted that if there were any drugs cheats, they would be caught.
Dick Pound, an IOC member and former president of Wada, told the BBC that Ye's performance was "surprising".
"Nobody's ever seen somebody swim that fast before. You expect that to be an occurrence at an Olympic Games," he said.
"The problem is - with all the suspicions about drug use throughout sport - when something is really, really spectacular, the first thing you do after you see that performance is say, 'hmm, I wonder'."
Mr Pound added: "It's a fact of life that people say, 'wasn't that magnificent, was it too magnificent?'"
Earlier scandals
The US Olympic Committee (USOC) has distanced itself from Mr Leonard's comments - its spokesman, Patrick Sandusky, told the BBC the Americans were trying to smooth things over with the Chinese.
A member of USOC's international relations team is expected to make contact with the Chinese Olympic Committee later on Tuesday, says the BBC's David Bond.
"We are reaching out to the Chinese and their Olympic committee to ensure they know that this gentleman [Mr Leonard] is not part of our delegation, USA Swimming or the US Olympic Committee," the USOC member said.
"His comments are an independent view and not from us."
Earlier, former British Olympic champion Adrian Moorhouse said the rumours appeared to be a case of sour grapes.
"The Chinese might have just found this really talented kid, who can work really hard, has the perfect shape and can cope with all the pressure thrown at her," he told the BBC.
Suspicions over Ye's performance were heightened when it was pointed out that in the final 50m of her race she swam faster than the winner of the men's race, Ryan Lochte.
However, her world-record time was still 23 seconds slower than Lochte's winning time, and several of Lochte's competitors were faster than her over the final 50m.
Chinese officials also pointed out that Lochte was easing to the finish, comfortably in the lead, whereas Ye had to battle to the end to take first place.
China's swimming team was repeatedly hit by doping scandals in the 1990s.
Seven swimmers tested positive for drugs in the 1994 Asian Games, and four years later four Chinese swimmers failed pre-tournament drug tests before the World Championships in Australia.
Chinese officials insist they have cleaned up the sport, but earlier this year another 16-year-old swimming prodigy, Li Zhesi, failed a drug test.
All medal winners at the Olympics are drug tested. In addition, any athlete whose performance is far better than anything they have achieved before can be targeted for extra tests.
31 July 2012 Last updated at 08:02 ET
Why teen athletes can make big improvementsBy Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, BBC News
Ye Shiwen swam faster in the last 50m of the 400m medley than her counterpart in the men's race
Outside of the performance of Team GB athletes, perhaps the abiding image of the Olympics so far is the performance of Ye Shiwen.
The 16-year-old Chinese swimmer claimed gold on Saturday in the 400m individual medley, in a world record time of four minutes 28.43 seconds.
At the 300m mark, she was eight-tenths of a second behind the leader, US swimmer Elizabeth Beisel.
But by the end of an astonishing freestyle leg, she was almost three seconds ahead of her.
Her final 50m was faster than Ryan Lochte's in the men's event, despite him swimming one of the fastest times in history.
US coach John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, has questioned the performance, saying it was "suspicious".
'Sour grapes'
However, she has denied any wrongdoing. It should also be pointed out that she has been tested at the Olympics and previously and has never failed a drugs test.
And other experts have said the doubts that have been cast over her win are just "sour grapes".
They say it is perfectly possible to see dramatic improvements in teenage competitors.
Ye's time on Saturday was seven seconds faster than the one she clocked at last year's world championships.
And she is not the only young swimmer who has made big strides in these Games.
Ruta Meilutyte, a 15-year-old from Lithuania, took gold in the 100m breaststroke.
Her best time at the Olympics - clocked in the semi-final - was 2.5 seconds faster than her time at the European Youth Olympics a year ago.
And her event is four times shorter than Ye's.
Australian Ian Thorpe, who has won five Olympic golds, says the way the body develops during the teenage years makes such feats possible.
He says from the age of 15 to 16, his personal best in the 400m freestyle improved by five seconds, allowing him to take the world record.
"Young swimmers can take chunks off chunks of time that others can't," he adds.
Adrian Moorhouse, the British swimmer who took gold in the 100m breaststroke at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, makes the same point.
When he was 17, he bettered his personal best by four seconds, explaining it was a "natural growth spurt".
He says Ye's "small and light" frame is a great physique for her event.
"They might have just found this really, really talented kid who can work really, really hard, and actually got the perfect shape and actually can cope with all the pressure that's thrown at her."
'Development'
So how does the teenage body change to allow big improvements?
Prof John Brewer, director of sport at Bedfordshire University and member of the British Olympic Association, says during these years the body releases hormones which help the body grow, muscle bulk develop and powers of endurance increase.
Exeter University
"In a short space of time the body can undergo massive changes," he says.
"During this [period] the performance of young athletes can sometimes suffer, but in the end it results in a body that is capable of much higher performance."
Prof John Brewer also believes there may be something about the nature of swimming that makes it easier for young athletes to excel.
"It is about power and endurance, meaning that young swimmers are able to train harder and longer at a younger age compared to something like sprinting, which is much more about power.
"It means we can see swimmers mature at an earlier stage."
Professor Craig Williams, an expert in health and exercise at Exeter University, who has worked with youth athletes, agrees.
"Sports such as gymnastics and swimming are technically demanding and so with the correct training youngsters can excel even if they are not the most powerful."
But he says the improvements in performance are also related to maturing mentally as well as physically.
"Obviously the changes in the body help in terms of strength and endurance, but the psychological aspect is important too.
"You have to be able to handle the pressure and know how to perform. That can make a big difference."
But Ye's performance can be explained by something much more basic too.
It is something many commentators have highlighted - the size of Ye's home country's population.
"China has a vast pool of talent to choose from... so we should not be too surprised when an individual with exceptional talent emerges," Prof Brewer adds.
I think the accusations are getting absurd. Waiting for female rights activists to come up with a good rebuttal against this none sense.
cn_habs
Junior Member
Japan and South Korea have been amazing whereas Russia had really dropped the ball in the past decade.
Track and field will give the US quite some medals later on in the games but China still has a shot at finishing with the most gold medals.
Agreed ^^^ If the Soviet Union was still intact I wonder how they would do? I also remember the East Germans having a very strong team.
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