Maybe they want more countries represented? But as one article noted, even if the top four teams in the world qualified all four of their gymnasts for the all-around (which wouldn't happen anyway), there still would be 8 spots up for grabs by the other countries. I can't imagine how she felt, especially having to stand right close to Aly as she was being interviewed. It'll be intersting to see how she responds. I think eliminating that two person rule would effectively eliminate any tension like that because everyone would have a chance. It's like the US, and any team in their shoes, is getting penalized for being so deep. Plus there are plenty of other sports where one country sweeps the medals.
I think the rule is fine. Otherwise, a lot of these sports would get boring. Who wants to see a sport dominated by only a few countries?
yeah, east germany was one of the first things i thought while watching it. the fact that her quote after the race was “We have good scientific-based training" didn't help that image. she swam the whole 100M only .03 slower than lochte, the gold medal winning MAN. china, a country with no real swimming success to speak of, but certainly swimming doping scandals to speak of, suddenly shows up in london competing in almost every event and has 16 year old girls outswimming elite male swimmers. now we can't know if she's doping, and who knows if other countries are doing it, but after the last 10 or 15 years of sports, if something seems really suspicious, there usually ends up being a reason for that. and that last 100M was suspicious.
anyone have a link to the part of the opening ceremony where the queen jumps out of the heli? can't find it anywhere on youtube.
^ http://embed.vidyard.com/landingpage/aAPhAVFFkJaoUAsdi0dZBg <iframe class="vidyard_iframe" src="http://api.vidyard.com/playbackengine/aAPhAVFFkJaoUAsdi0dZBg/?iframe=true&" width="520" height="293" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
quite a few olympic sports are dominated by only a few countries (like ping pong and badminton to mention a few that were mentioned earlier as having universal appeal). gymnastics isn't really one of them so i'm not even sure why they need the rule. 24 people in the all-around is a large number to allow to potentially exclude a top 3 or 4 person.
what are you talking about? china's arguably the 3rd most successful country in swimming since bacelona 1992 after usa and australia. and i don't think china has more doping scandals swinmming or otherwise than usa and europe in that same time frame. you need to get your facts straight. that said, i agree ye's last 100m was suspicious.
didn't sun yang just win china's first ever men's gold medal? and they had some sort of systemic doping program scandal in the 90's.
Yeah, but you have to understand that even the backup teams in China would still probably get medals in those sports. Then why not let them play too? That way they would get all 3 medals in every event. Maybe they should just keep the limit at 2 per, but then take the top performers from the remaining pool. That way the good ones would still make it to the next round.
You have to learn a lot more what's happening in the world outside America. Ye is not a no-name, she has been the medalists of nearly every major swimming competitions for more than two years. Her best event is 200IM. Just because you have never heard of her from your "report-American-Athletes-news-only" sports channels doesn't mean that this gold medal is any "sudden" success. Here's an article that I think might worth your 2 minutes... [Rquoter] LONDON, England, July 29. IT was going to happen. It was only a matter of when, and with how much force. Not minutes after Chinese youngster Ye Shiwen captured the gold medal in the 400 individual medley on the opening night of Olympic competition, accusations started to fly. You know the type. She must be doping. What a bloody shame. ... http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/USA/31424.asp [/rquoter] And in case you are not aware of, our "swimming success" has a lot to do with the most advanced training facilities and great coaches from other countries: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/sports/olympics/09iht-swim09.html?pagewanted=all
It wasn't that she won the race, it's how she won the race. Anyone that watched it and how she beat the world champion in the event had to raise an eyebrow at it all. It was extremely suspicious. It would be no less suspicious if an American sixteen year old had done it. Don't give me this advanced training and great coaches bs.
LOl.... "From nothing to four Golds at the 1992 World Champs and the 1992 Olympics to 12 Golds at the 1994 World Champs. That kind of improvement is questionable. At the 94 Asian Games, 11 Chinese women swimmers tested positive for dihydrotestosterone; at the 96 Olympics they only won a single gold medal, and no positive tests. 98 World Champs and four swimmers tested positive, plus human growth hormone was found in a swimmer's luggage. Before the 2000 Olympics, China removed four women from its squad for odd test results and no swimmer from China earned any medals." "But in the 1990s, 32 swimmers were caught using performance-enhancing drugs and coach Zhou Ming was banned from the sport for life. In 1996, the team's medal count slipped to six; in 2000, the team won no medals in Sydney, and it won just two in Athens." China has the biggest doping history in swimming and you talk about getting facts right, hilarious.
Croatia vs China women's basketball right now (Croatia has some pretty good looking girls) http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/132931/1/watch-olympic:-croatia-vs-china,-womens.html
I didn't, you fellow countryman did. It was an article from The New York Times. I am not denying the facts that Chinese athletes and coaches were notorious a decade or two ago practicing doping to win medals. Those were the years when they had little to lose and simply stupid. The Chinese Communist Party nowadays probably is the most aggressive anti-doping force towards their own athletes. They are not going to lose faces being the laughing stock worldwide due to doping scandals in the world largest sport event. Sometimes I feel sorry for guys like you, who can barely share a little bit of joy from an exciting story of a teenager's success. Anti-doping test is mandate by FINA for all Olympic medalists so we shall see. If the results were positive, she and her coach will get their punishments. If the results were negative but she did cheat by taking performance-enhancing drugs, don't worry, mother nature will punish her, just like what it did to the other American cyclist.
Given the history you can't complain about the issue being raised, it's clear in the past they're not afraid to push it and play fair. If she herself is clean then good on her, she won't be caught and perhaps she can start to change that image, however they're known to cheat so of course it's going to get raised whether that's fair or not she comes from a country that has history. Just like any successful cyclist will be accused of doping at some stage, so will succesful Chinese athletes(especially swimmers) until they have a long period of time without being caught.
