OT drugged up swimmers...SPOLIERS

PBo

So a 17 y. o. American has just knocked half a second of the world record for 200m women's backstroke. How long before the American who cast doubt on the Chinese girl's performance pipes up about drugs.....what's that you say? He won't??? Why ever not?

asquithea

Is it five seconds faster than his/her previously recorded personal best?

I don't follow swimming closely at all, but I can totally see why some people are a bit skeptical about the Chinese lass' performance, even casting aside much of the history of doping in the sport (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_China). As I understand it, such leaps in performance are rare, but not completely unheard of.

Let's bear in mind that drug testing tends to lag behind doping (e.g. EPO use through the 1990s; first sporting detection in 2002). Her result should stand unless proven tainted at some point in the future, but I think the suspicions are legitimate and shouldn't be shouted down with accusations of racism.

asquithea

Mildly amusing follow-up in the interests of answering my own question.

Different race, I think, but American Katie Ledecky beat Rebecca Adlington with a similar jump over her personal best, according to the telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... -gold.html

veronese68

Ian Thorpe made what seemed to be a valid point on the BBC chat after the Ledecky/Adlington race.
Her jump was over 800m, so effectively less of a jump per metre swum. Plus, she's only 15. You'd expect her to make rapid improvements at that age.

thegibdog

Anyone knowledgeable on the subject of hormones added to meat in the USA and swimming performance?

cjcp

Veronese68 wrote:

Ian Thorpe made what seemed to be a valid point on the BBC chat after the Ledecky/Adlington race.
Her jump was over 800m, so effectively less of a jump per metre swum. Plus, she's only 15. You'd expect her to make rapid improvements at that age.

This seems plausible. Shiwen swimming faster than Lochte for her final 50m, not so much.

mtb-idle

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

jimmypippa

The BBC radio program More or Less discussed this.

Good, but within normal bounds.

Paul E

MTB-Idle wrote:

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

Beating them by a few hundredths of a second is not the same as beating them by whole seconds and even then out of the blue.

thelawnet

MTB-Idle wrote:

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

Didn't they custom build the world's best velodrome with optimum conditions unmatched in the world? I doubt anyone will say the water in the pool is different.

DonDaddyD

There was a Japanese sprinter, built like a long distance runner, who got to the 100m semi finals and ran 10.10.

In another 100m semi finals there was a Chinese sprinter, he came last but ran 10.28.

The Beijing Olympics must have created a cultural shift towards focusing on and developing Sports in Asia.

Paul E

thelawnet wrote:

MTB-Idle wrote:

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

Didn't they custom build the world's best velodrome with optimum conditions unmatched in the world? I doubt anyone will say the water in the pool is different.

There is a report of a reporter asking one of the swimmers if the pool was a quick one, that reflects more on the state of sports reporting than anything else though

vermin

Paul E wrote:

thelawnet wrote:

MTB-Idle wrote:

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

Didn't they custom build the world's best velodrome with optimum conditions unmatched in the world? I doubt anyone will say the water in the pool is different.

There is a report of a reporter asking one of the swimmers if the pool was a quick one, that reflects more on the state of sports reporting than anything else though

I heard it's downhill with a nice cross-tail.

Brakeless

They should have a swimming event against the flow at the White water Centre :P

Kieran_Burns

They tried it with heavy water but the competitors didn't react well to the idea.

Opinion was 'split' on whether it should continue

vermin

Kieran_Burns wrote:

They tried it with heavy water but the competitors didn't react well to the idea.

Opinion was 'split' on whether it should continue

*Like*

Kieran_Burns

vermin wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

They tried it with heavy water but the competitors didn't react well to the idea.

Opinion was 'split' on whether it should continue

*Like*

These puns do take effort you know

noodles71

cjcp wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Ian Thorpe made what seemed to be a valid point on the BBC chat after the Ledecky/Adlington race.
Her jump was over 800m, so effectively less of a jump per metre swum. Plus, she's only 15. You'd expect her to make rapid improvements at that age.

This seems plausible. Shiwen swimming faster than Lochte for her final 50m, not so much.

That wasn't the first time Lochte got beaten by the equivalent woman in the same event on the home straight.

mtb-idle

and maybe the cycling succes is down to them 'special wheels' we've bin riding!

Paul E

MTB-Idle wrote:

and maybe the cycling succes is down to them 'special wheels' we've bin riding!

Yeah we choose round ones, very special

tailwindhome

thelawnet wrote:

MTB-Idle wrote:

in the interest of fairness should we be asking questions about a team who set a world record every time for their last six outings?

Didn't they custom build the world's best velodrome with optimum conditions unmatched in the world? I doubt anyone will say the water in the pool is different.

Was the Cube in Bejing not reputed to be a 'fast' pool?

nation

There are fast pools and slow pools (wife is a former competitive swimmer).

As I understand it, the difference is in whether the pool drains over a lip at the edges or not. One reflects disturbances in the water back across the surface of the pool, making it choppier, and the other kills surface disturbances, making for a smoother surface.

One of the other weird things about Yi Shiwen's 400m medley swim is that the freestyle leg was disproportionately fast when compared to individual 100m freestyle times relative to the other legs. I read a write up that suggested if she had the energy to put in a massively quick final leg she must necessarily have paced herself poorly and could go 2-3 seconds quicker overall by pushing harder in the other legs. Which really would be in WTF territory.