LONDON — Teenage Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen is not a drug cheat, the British Olympic Association’s chairman has said, after a United States 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.
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 United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper.
