Ye Shiwen has history against her

Yeah big deal... Lance Armstrong "tested" negative HUNDREDS of time and look at the results now! The Chinese have a history of cheating in swimming, as do other countries, just consider the possible chance she or her coaches did this time. Don't be fooled by negative drugs tests, there are ways of easily beating them.

Rebecca Adlington swam a last 50 split of 28.91 when she won gold in the 800m free in the 2011 World Championships. it is not unheard of.

They go through their own program. It's not as if they're individuals that are doping - this is systemic.

This is what Ian Thorpe had to say: "You know, when I was 15-year-old I swam 3:46 to win the World Championships. The following year as a 16-year-old, I broke the world record in 3:41. That's a five-second drop off. " But, again, Thorpe is only a multiple Olympic Gold Medalist and World Record breaker - how could he know more than the clowns on this Forum, who claim Ye Shiwen is a cheat. And, here's a bit of a snippet for the ignorant people calling her a cheat ... Ye Shiwen, along with 19 other Chinese swimmers, have been coached by an Aussie, Ken Wood, who has coached some of Australia's biggest swimming stars. Wood says "the suggestion that Ye came from nowhere is ridiculous. She improved her time, and you have to remember, she was number one 400 IM swimmer in the world, had the fastest time in the world in the Asian Games in 2010. She was number two in the 200 IM. So, young kinds - it's different if there was a - if it was a 23-year-old woman who was fully matured, but this is a growing girl and she's a lot bigger now than she was when she was 14 when she did those times. She's older, stronger, smarter and very big hands and feet, so - and very dedicated. So, it was a good swim." More here: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3558629.htm

Good explanation Matt F

Just saw on Ten news that she has already been tested and they reported that she was clean. I think she is a terrific swimmer. I think we find it hard to believe that a woman can swim faster than a man. Women can swim gentleman. Phelps' Olympics medal tally record could already be under threat from a 16 year old. Good luck to Shiwen.

You are aware that she was actually 23 seconds slower then Lochte in the race right? And that 42 out of the 45 men who swam in the heats for the event would have beaten Ye's time?

So she beat his final lap time wth her final lap time? That's it? 1 lap? Lochte's total race time was 4:05.18 while Ye's was 4:28.43. He still beat her race time by over 23 seconds. In fact, of the 45 men who swam in the heats for the 400IM, all but 3 were faster than Ye! Second placed Elizabeth Beisel would also faster than those 3 men. The far more likely scenario is that Lochte went out hard early and either ran out of gas a bit towards the end or slowed up when he hit a big lead whilst Ye paced herself a bit better and had a bit left in her tank. That's more than possible when you consider that Lochte led by over 3 seconds going into his final lap while Ye led by less than 1 second going into her final lap.

Yes it is because she is a girl, she's not even matrued yet. Who even knows if she really is a girl?

In a few days she will beat Usain Bolt in the 100m by 5 secs!

The lawer is Horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible.............................

So what? Somebody is faster than Lochte, why Ye can not? just because she's a woman? If you question Ye just because china swimming team has a history of dopings, then you should question more on Euro and American as they have a long long long long history of using drugs.

Stoffy, if Ye, like Contador, had been found to have previously used a banned susbtance (in '07 I think), I would be completely in your camp. So you using Contador as a parallel doesn't work in this case. Try again.

With such flawless points, I shudder to think of the ruthlessness with which you crush your opponents in court.

The time she swam is evidence enough, so was the needle sticking out of her a$$ at the finish

yes we need to change dealers.

Hoy All valid points. Large improvements in young swimmers aparently is not uncommon, because they are still growing and maturing. Aparently Ye has had a huge growth spurt of about 12 cms in the past year and abit. The Chinese are not the only one with form. Whole sports like cycling and athletics have plenty of form as well. Unfortunately doping and the Olympics will always be reluctant bed fellows. Sad but true. A case could be made for either camp. The good thing about being on the pessimistic camp is that at least you'll never be disappointed. Personally I'm in the 'clean' camp...Until proven otherwise of course..

Haha, good one Robbie. Going by your impeccable ability to produce an evidence-based line of argument ("outboard motor", "drug cheats for years" and "whole bloody country should be thrown out"), I'm assuming you work as a litigation lawyer?

As if any 16 year old male / female can swim that fast UNLESS she sat on an outboard motor. The Chinese have been drug cheats for years, it's not hard to mask testing. The whole bloody country should be thrown out of the Games.

In the interests of balance, it is not just Australians questioning her times. Other nations are suspicious of Chinese swimmers as well. I hope she is clean, because I can't stand the damage idiots do when they take performance enhancing substances and win over honest athletes. But a few things I think about with this bird: 1) China has form in a big way. People don't forget. Imagine if a German swimmer popped up with amazing times, and blitzed the field. People don't forget. 2) The amount of work that Chinese swimmers would do in training would leave ours for dead. While Steph was tweeting her bikini pictures, they were training. I would hate to think how a state sponsored regime like China makes their athletes train, so they can be the propaganda piece moving forward for the nation. Generalisation much? Maybe, but I bet they work them hard there. 3) She beat a suit assisted record by over half a body length. It was amazing. The nearest swimmer to her had just touched the other end. Not quite, but there was a massive gap between her and 2nd. I was surprised, and to beat it by so much was incredible. It wasn't beating it by increments.