Caster Semenya vs. Ye Shiwen
Some people think the Olympic gold medalist Ye Shiwen has been unfairly treated by the Western media with suspicions of her doping. Comparison with other athletes of exceptional performance may shed some light on whether she is treated unfairly.
The previous female swimmer suffering from similar suspicions is Dutch athlete Inge de Bruijn. She won 3 gold medals all setting a new world record at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Like Ye, she has never been tested positive for illegal drug. I still remember a top American swimmer made a very disrespectful comment on Bruijn’s performance to a reporter: “I guess I could do it too if I were a man”, implying she believed that Bruijn was using male hormone to boost her muscles. That reflected the widespread suspicions among the media and athletes. That was 12 years ago. Let us compare Ye with an athlete going through the agony recently - Caster Senmenya:
Caster Senmenya | Ye Shiwen |
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In 2009, at the age of 18, South African female runner Caster Senmenya effortlessly won the 800 meters at the World Championships in Athletics with a time of 1:55:45. Prior to that in the same year, she set both the Junior and Senior South African records in that distance. Suspicions of drug use immediately followed her dramatic improvement of performance. The suspicions eventually led to an unprecedented and humiliating gender test. The test was done even without Senmenya’s knowledge. The drama lasted for about a year during which Senmenya lost the opportunities to participated in a few important competitions. She was eventually cleared in July 2010. The handling of test outraged many people including prominent athletes and civil right activists. They came out to defend Senmenya.
| In the 2012 London Olympics, at the age of 16, Chinese female swimmer Ye won the gold medal of 400 Meter Individual Medley with her last lap faster than that of the gold medalist of the men’s equivalent – Ryan Lochte. Suspicions of her doping followed the mind-blowing performance, but largely receded in one or two weeks. Many athletes including Australia’s Ian Thorpe came out to defend her performance. Ye’s Chinese swimming team has a history of rampant doping in 1990s.
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