Concerns regarding Ye Shiwen’s performance arise following a series of doping cases involving Chinese swimmers in recent years.
In the 1994 world championships held in Rome, China achieved an impressive win, securing 12 out of 16 women’s titles, but this glory was tainted shortly after when seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for prohibited substances at the Asian Games in Hiroshima.
During the 1998 world championships in Perth, four Chinese athletes were sent home due to positive steroid tests. This incident occurred just a week after one of their teammates, along with her coach, was apprehended for attempting to smuggle human growth hormone at Sydney Airport.
Ouyang Kunpeng, China’s top backstroke swimmer and record holder, aged 29, faced a lifetime ban after testing positive for the same substance merely a month prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, this ban was later reduced to two years.
In 2009, the swimming association in China imposed a two-year ban on five junior swimmers who tested positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol, a substance that enhances performance.
Moreover, in June, Chinese state media reported that 16-year-old Li Zhesi, a member of the national team that won at the 2009 World Championships, had been found positive for EPO, a performance-enhancing drug that increases the body’s oxygen levels.
He mentioned that Miss Ye’s performance had resurrected ‘a lot of terrible memories’ regarding Irish swimmer Michelle Smith’s triumph at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Smith received a four-year ban in 1998 for manipulating a drug test.
by Rahndi Ghit
