The Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen is only 16, but she has two more Olympic gold medals than most people reading this article. Her world record time in the women's 400m individual medley was considered "suspicious" and "disturbing" by American coach John Leonard, though, because how else could a 16-year-old manage to swim so fast, and break the world record so easily?
Never mind that Ye has repeatedly tested clean for drug use, or that other swimmers like Ian Thorpe pointed out that they also managed big leaps in performance around the same age -- Ye Shiwen is Chinese, and that brings with it suspicion. After all, when each Olympiad rolls around a geopolitical brouhaha cannot be far behind -- we may live in a post-Cold War/ post-Rocky IV world, but everyone knows that the former communist countries consistently sought ways to produce 'perfect' athletes. Right?
By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Olivia Solon
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via Wired.co.uk
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/05/breeding-athletes
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