Re: London 2012 Olympics
Honestly I have no idea what to think of this Ye Shiwen thing.
It's not racist to raise suspicions, here -- the Chinese have had a history of doping and so when you see a random burst of performance, it's suspicious.
What bothers me isn't that she beat Lochte's pacing during the final stretch or whatever. What bothers me is that she beat her personal best by five seconds.
Considering that she grew up TRAINING for this sort of thing, I find it excruciatingly hard to believe that she suddenly gains this amazing performance boost right when it matters most. It reminds me a lot of my Death Piano situation, actually. I was the top FFR player for a while and could get top scores, but then towards the end I started pumping out these completely killer scores on stuff like RATO, Gigadelic, Death Piano, etc, that seemed unreal (and they were). This situation feels a lot like that.
I really want to believe her, though. Constant doubt poses a problem. I can always move the goalposts. "She passed the tests? Well, maybe she figured out how to fake them," is always a possible excuse, which means that it is feasible that she never quite escapes suspicion no matter how much proof she provides.
This wouldn't be such a big deal though if China didn't have such a spotty history. History + smashing personal best + smashing the speeds of top male athletes = an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence.
If anything, I think Ye needs to step it up and volunteer to more tests. Phelps did it, which is how he was able to avoid controversies like these.
If there's cheating involved, I'm sure someone will figure it out. Until then, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Honestly I have no idea what to think of this Ye Shiwen thing.
It's not racist to raise suspicions, here -- the Chinese have had a history of doping and so when you see a random burst of performance, it's suspicious.
What bothers me isn't that she beat Lochte's pacing during the final stretch or whatever. What bothers me is that she beat her personal best by five seconds.
Considering that she grew up TRAINING for this sort of thing, I find it excruciatingly hard to believe that she suddenly gains this amazing performance boost right when it matters most. It reminds me a lot of my Death Piano situation, actually. I was the top FFR player for a while and could get top scores, but then towards the end I started pumping out these completely killer scores on stuff like RATO, Gigadelic, Death Piano, etc, that seemed unreal (and they were). This situation feels a lot like that.
I really want to believe her, though. Constant doubt poses a problem. I can always move the goalposts. "She passed the tests? Well, maybe she figured out how to fake them," is always a possible excuse, which means that it is feasible that she never quite escapes suspicion no matter how much proof she provides.
This wouldn't be such a big deal though if China didn't have such a spotty history. History + smashing personal best + smashing the speeds of top male athletes = an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence.
If anything, I think Ye needs to step it up and volunteer to more tests. Phelps did it, which is how he was able to avoid controversies like these.
If there's cheating involved, I'm sure someone will figure it out. Until then, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.








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