OT Swimming and USA Dominance

[Wbbfan1]

Are we beginning to see the end of USA's dominance in Swimming in both the Men and Women teams? The Gold Medals for the men has been spread out amongst many country's except for Phelp's medals in the last Olympics. It appears to me that by the time 2016 Olympics that the Chinese will be the dominant team for the Women.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The Chinese have a huge pool of athletes to draw from.

 

[alexrgct]

Will they be PED-free this time? Unlike, say, 1996?

 

[OneTrickPony]

Will they be PED-free this time? Unlike, say, 1996?

Do they still have all those East German (GDR) coaches...?

 

[stamfordhusky]

Don't know if they still have the East German coaches, but if not, they apparently learned well. Here's an excerpt from comments made by a top swimming coach today:

"John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, toldThe Guardianthat the 16-year-old's lightning freestyle leg in her world-record 400m individual medley swim was simply "impossible".​

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The schoolgirl timed 58.68sec in the last 100 metres, a whisker off US winner Ryan Lochte's time in the men's competition.​

Astonishingly, her final lap was quicker than the American champion.​

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"The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," Leonard told the British newspaper.​

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"That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while."​

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http://www.news.com.au/sport/london-olympics/chinese-schoolgirl-shiwen-ye-swimming-faster-than-men/story-fndpu6dv-1226438946789​

 

[OneTrickPony]

Don't know if they still have the East German coaches, but if not, they apparently learned well. Here's an excerpt from comments made by a top swimming coach today:

"The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," Leonard told the British​

So more of the same...

 

[cardfan]

good column by Sally Jenkins on Missy Franklin

LINK

 

[EricLA]

It's just a matter of time before China dominates everywhere. Not to get totally political, but they are poised to supplant the USA as the #1 world power (in the next 10-20 years or so?), and their athletes are excelling at just about every sport. Swimming is just another example. They already own the diving competitions. I'll be curious how long it takes them to become a force in the winter games...

 

[alexrgct]

So, yes- continuing to cheat. Awesome.

What about more 10 year old gymnasts? Do they have any of them competing this year?