British Olympic Association Chairman Lord Moynihan on Tuesday dismissed doping doubts prompted by the record-breaking performance of teenage Chinese swimming sensation Ye Shiwen, pointing out that she has cleared the Word Anti-Doping Agency's testings for illegal drugs.
"We know how on top of the game Wada are and Wada have passed her as clean. She's been through Wada's program and she's clean. That's the end of the story. Ye Shiwen deserves recognition for her talent," Lord Moynihan said at a news conference held Monday.
"That athlete or, indeed, any athlete that has never tested positive is an athlete who should be supported by her federation and, indeed, everybody in the Olympic movement. Let us recognize that there is an extraordinary swimmer out there who deserves the recognition of her talent in these Games," he added.
Separately, the International Olympic Committee said it is confident that all drug cheats in the London Games will be caught as the top five athletes in each event, along with two others, are being subjected to a stringent drug-testing program.
Ye had earlier won the gold medal in the 400 meters individual medley, smashing her personal best by at least five seconds and the world record by more than a second. In her final 50 meters, Ye was quicker than American swimmer Ryan Lochte, who won the men's individual medley in the second-fastest time in history.
Her record-breaking performance prompted senior US coach John Leonard, who is executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, to describe her feat as "disturbing" and suggest that doping could have been involved.
"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," he said in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper.
Nevertheless, 16-year-old Ye, who is due to compete in the 200 meters Medley final later on Tuesday, has strongly denied Leonard's speculations, insisting that she has never used any banned performance-enhancing substances.
China's anti-doping chief Jiang Zhixue has also dismissed the doping allegations, pointing out that not a single Chinese athlete has tested positive for banned substances despite undergoing nearly 100 drug tests after arriving in London for the Olympic games.
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