LONDON — Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen survived a late challenge from Alicia Coutts to win the 200m individual medley final on Tuesday and collect her second gold medal at the London Olympics.
The 16-year-old followed up her incredible win in the 400 medley three days earlier with another impressive display of power and perfect technique.
But this time she had to work much harder. She was third when they turned for home, but overhauled her rivals to win the multi-discipline event in two minutes, 07,57 seconds.
Coutts, who won a relay gold for Australia on Saturday, took second place, just ahead of America’s Caitlin Leverenz.
Stephanie Rice, the gold medallist in Beijing four years ago was fourth while world record holder Ariana Kukors was fifth.
Ye won the Asian championship as a 14-year-old in 2010 then added the world title last year, but her performances in London, where millions of people around the world are seeing her compete for their first time, have triggered thinly-veiled accusations of doping by the Chinese.
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Ye has denied any wrongdoing and Olympic officials hinted her test results from the 400 came up clean.
“We would only comment if we had any adverse finding,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said earlier. “I am not commenting, so you can draw your own conclusions.”