Chinese Teen Swim Sensation Says She's Clean
2012 London Summer Olympics

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London, England

A day after Chinese teen sensation, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen, shattered Australian Stephanie Rice's record in the women's 400m individual medley, shaving off more than a second, global media started raising suspicions about her London Olympic Game feat.

The swimmer, backed by her teammates, hit back saying the suspicions were unfounded and that China had a stringent policy in place to prevent doping. The Zhejiang swimmer had taken the swimming world by storm at last year's World Championships in Shanghai, where she clinched the 200m individual medley title.

At the Aquatics Center in London, she left everyone in a daze by clocking an even faster final lap that US winner Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps in the men's competition. A bewildered Rice was quoted as telling the media that it (the final run) was simply insane. Ye also shaved off nearly seven seconds off the time she sent at the Worlds last year last.

Ye's next event is the 200m individual medley and going by the timing she set in the heats on Monday --- she clocked 2:8.90sec, the quickest in the world this year --- she looks almost certain to clinch her second gold.

China's dubious record and the clandestine state-sponsored doping program of the 80s and 90s gave the European media enough fodder for the cannon to blast the teen sensation. But Ye was quoted as saying that there was no issue of doping in China and that the team had a "firm policy".

A leading British newspaper headlined its article, "Ye's amazing time for freestyle leg scarcely credible". The reason behind such a rabid media tirade could be the fact that the swimmer was former team-mate of China's Li Zhesi, suspended from the Olympics on charges of using blood-booster erythropoietin. Another newspaper said that the communist country had such a checkered and shameful past that any achievement can only be taken with a pinch of salt.

Though Rice said she didn't want to get into a slanging match, her comments did raise a stink when she was quoted as telling the media that, "I have no idea…I mean I wouldn't want to get into that (slanging match) at all, but a 58sec (final 100m) is an insanely fast swim."

However, some swimmers came to Ye's rescue saying that it was not unheard of teen swimmers making quantum improvements in timings in a short span. Notabe among them were Britain's Mark Foster and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical commission head, Arne Ljungqvist, termed the media diatribe a sad thing. He added that a good or unexpected showing shouldn't be surrounded by suspicions. "To raise suspicion immediately when you see an extraordinary performance --- to me it is against the fascination of sport," he said at a press conference.

China have struck it rich in the pool on the first two days of the swimming competition, clinching two gold through Ye and Sun Yang (400m freestyle), though they had won a solitary gold in the pool at the 2008 Beijing Games.

American swimmer, Lochte's comments on Ye that he could have been 'beaten' by the Chinese girl too made for some sensational news. By Ye said that her performance was the result of "hard work and training".

The media were questioning whether Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen, gold medalist in the 400IM, might be doping. But her coach defended her achievement and officials said there's no evidence to back up any such suspicions