It only took one day for the first doping accusation of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to hit the news wire. According to BBC News, Ye Shiwen's record-breaking performance on Saturday in the 400-meter individual medley has raised a few eyebrows in the swimming community.
Ye beat her own personal best by five seconds and swam the last 50 meters quicker than the men's champion Ryan Lochte, beating out .
For leading US coach John Leonard, Ye's performance was "unbelievable" and "disturbing." Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said Ye's performance reminded him of the East German women swimmers from the 1980s who were doping. In the 1990s, the Chinese swimming team was hit with several doping scandals.
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"History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotations marks around this, 'unbelievable,' history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," Leonard told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
According to the International Olympic Committee, Ye passed drug testing following her record win. Ye herself also denied doping.
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"There's absolutely no problem with doping," said Ye on Monday. "The Chinese team has always had a firm policy about doping."
All Olympic medal winners are drug tested. Athletes with exceptional performances above their norm are also targeted for extra tests.
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