London 2012 Olympics: China's Ye Shiwen is clean, insists British Olympic chief

 

Senior Olympics officials today came to the defence of the Chinese athlete at the centre of doping accusations.

Ye Shiwen, 16, has faced questions after a top American coach called her gold medal-winning performance "unbelievable".

But British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan told a press conference: "She's been through the World Anti-Doping Agency's programme and she's clean. That's the end of the story. Ye Shiwen deserves recognition."

An IOC source said people should "get real" and pointed out that records are broken all the time.

With the row threatening to provoke a diplomatic incident, Adrian Moorhouse, who won gold for GB at the Seoul Olympics, criticised the USA.

He told BBC 5 Live: "It is sour grapes. I think it's quite insulting actually. She's just in good shape. The other thing is there are a lot of people in China and actually the base of their pyramid is so wide that if they train thousands and thousands of their kids they've got more to draw on."

Referring to America's greatest Olympic swimmer, he added: "They might have just found their Michael Phelps." Ye denies the claims and vowed to fight for gold against British swimmer Hannah Miley in tonight's 200 metre medley final.

She sent shockwaves through the sport on Saturday when she set a world record, swimming the final 50m freestyle faster than male American champion Ryan Lochte had when he won his event minutes earlier. Her time for the event was five seconds better than her previous best.

US coach John Leonard described her swim as "disturbing" and added that she looks like "superwoman". Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, compared her time to a performance by Irish swimmer Michelle Smith at the 1996 Atlanta Games, over which she was subsequently banned.

The anti-doping chief of China's general administration of sport Jiang Zhixue said their athletes had taken 100 drug tests since arriving.

He added: "I can tell you that so far there was not a single positive case. We never questioned Michael Phelps when he bagged eight gold medals in Beijing."

When Ye was asked for her reaction to the allegations she said: "I just carry on, try my best to win. I just try my best and win."

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "We have put in place the most stringent anti-doping procedures ever."

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