Day 4: Ye ignores doping rumors, wins gold as China leads tallies

LONDON – Teenager Ye Shiwen calmly deflected controversy over her super-fast swimming as she spearheaded China’s quest for Olympic glory on Tuesday, July 31.

Ye, repeating her denial of ever using drugs, said suspicions voiced by some observers did not affect her — and had even spurred her on.

The 16-year-old was speaking after setting a new Olympic record to win the 200m individual medley, as China won four more titles to maintain their lead in the medals table.

Encouragement

“I don’t feel upset or sad about what the media have been saying about me,” Ye said. “I feel calm, but it just encouraged me to prove myself.”

Ye had aroused comment with her world-record 400m medley win, which included a last lap that was faster than men’s winner Ryan Lochte. But she said she was “absolutely not” a drug cheat.

“I do two-and-a-half hours (of training) every morning, two-and-a-half hours every afternoon and I have trained for nine years,” said the tousle-haired teen.

“I think everyone can achieve their goal. In my mind everyone can be a genius. I think in other countries people have won multiple medals and no one says anything about them, so why should they say these things about me?”

Ye kicked home with now-trademark speed in the 200m medley, adding to China’s golds in diving, weightlifting and fencing as they reached 13 golds on day four, four better than the United States.

Wins all across

Lin Qingfeng won the men’s -69kg class weightlifting, Lei Sheng was victorious in the men’s foil fencing and China made it three out of three in diving as Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao clinched the women’s 10m synchro platform.

And China unofficially pocketed the women’s table tennis — for the seventh consecutive Games — when Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia set up an all-Chinese final.

But China’s women’s gymnasts blamed the raucous crowd noise as they failed to defend their Olympic team title and finished fourth.

“We really love the cheering but we are sometimes distracted by the noise. That is our own fault,” said team member Sui Lu.

Round-up

At Wimbledon, Japan’s Kei Nishikori reached round three in the tennis competition with victory over Nikolay Davydenko.

But there was heartbreak for Indian doubles pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, a leading medal hope, who crashed out 6-3, 6-4 to France’s Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau.

Indonesia claimed their second weightlifting medal Triyatno Triyatno won silver in the men’s -69kg class.

Meanwhile South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam, who caused a stir with her tearful, hour-long sit-in protest over judging, was offered a consolation prize by the sport’s governing body in the form of a medal for sportsmanship. – Rappler.com