What do you guys think about China?

[John]

Firstly, I am not American, so I am not being Bias, which is what you seem to be implying. Secondly, this thread wasn't specifically about athlete doping. All I am saying is that there could be foul play going on in China in preparation for the Games.

Unless there is drug use involved, i can't think of anything that would be considered foul play in training for the olympics.

[John]

the olympic motto is "higher, faster, stronger" how do people get those things? work harder than the other people.

[Ryan~]

the olympic motto is "higher, faster, stronger" how do people get those things? work harder than the other people.

drugs. 7char

[John]

drugs. 7char

i said above that the use of drugs has been ruled out.

[Ryan~]

i said above that the use of drugs has been ruled out.

i know, just being an idiot

[John]

i know, just being an idiot

youre such a doll, pal.

[Ryan~]

youre such a doll, pal.

thanks babe<3

[Ana]

Yeah, but this Chinese girl was faster than the mens No.1!! Also, although gymnastics requires strength and concentration, you can't compare it to swimming! You are missing the point mate!

I think there's two overlapping facts here >.<
Ye Shiwen's last 50 in the 400IM was faster than Ryan Lochte. NOT her complete race. And if you want to compare that, his splits for the last 50 wasn't even the fastest in that heat. They were only in the middle of everyone else's splits for that final. Several people had faster last 50 splits than lochte.

Talking about her drop in time, she's at the age where she gets her growth spurt and shaves off some time. Look up Michael Phelp's times in the age of 15-17. So shaving off a lot of time isn't entirely impossible. People are saying she's dropped off so much time in comparison to her personal best, but that was set when she was 14. There's a lot of room for growth and improvement in two years.

So may it be a result of doping? With China's history, yes. But it is unfair to her to dismiss her accomplishments as a result of doping without any evidence. Unless any hard evidence comes to light, she's passed the drug tests, and leave it at that. For now, I just congratulate her on what she's achieved.

[jongeh]

I think there's two overlapping facts here >.<
Ye Shiwen's last 50 in the 400IM was faster than Ryan Lochte. NOT her complete race. And if you want to compare that, his splits for the last 50 wasn't even the fastest in that heat. They were only in the middle of everyone else's splits for that final. Several people had faster last 50 splits than lochte.

Talking about her drop in time, she's at the age where she gets her growth spurt and shaves off some time. Look up Michael Phelp's times in the age of 15-17. So shaving off a lot of time isn't entirely impossible. People are saying she's dropped off so much time in comparison to her personal best, but that was set when she was 14. There's a lot of room for growth and improvement in two years.

So may it be a result of doping? With China's history, yes. But it is unfair to her to dismiss her accomplishments as a result of doping without any evidence. Unless any hard evidence comes to light, she's passed the drug tests, and leave it at that. For now, I just congratulate her on what she's achieved.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is set in stone that all of China's athletes are drugged and cheating. I respect the fact that China has so many gold medals and I do understand that over there they may have athletes that are tremendously dedicated to what they do, maybe more so than anywhere else because it is part of their culture to honour and respect elders etc. From these recent events however, it has sparked interest in me that due to the controversy over China's history of fixes/cheating, why not question the competence of the athletes in London 2012?

The other day there was a badminton scandal that saw multiple Chinese athletes disqualified. I am just looking at the bigger picture.

[Ana]

I do not follow badminton so I don't know much about that scandal. However, from what I can see that was clear and deliberate cheating. And it was just not the Chinese teams which were involved in this scandal, people just seem to forgot that there were two other countries also ejected from the competition.

There is no indication in many cases of cheating in the swimming situation, so I do not see why people have the need to speculate. I'm just thinking of the many situations where the Chinese have done well, and there were a whole bunch of allegations of cheating or rule breaking. Beijing Olympics there was that whole mass of accusations of their gymnasts being underage. After taking their passports for evidence to prove that they were of age, there was more pressure so the Olympic Committee demanded birth certificates.

Why focus on just China? There are plenty of other countries with doping in it's history, including the US and Russia. Olympic procedure will continue testing her samples for new steroids for the next 8 years (provided she doesn't participate 4 years from now), so we'll know sooner or later of there was doping. If that does come true everyone can denounce the achievements all they want. But right now there is nothing, and the speculation is undermining any current accomplishments.