 |
| Chinese Swimmer Ye Shiwen |
The 400-meter individual medley (IM) is considered one of the most grueling races the sport of swimming has to offer. Every four years at the summer Olympic Games, qualifiers complete an exhausting 100 meters of each of the four strokes; butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle; in the hopes of attaining a gold medal and Olympic glory. The 400 IM at the 2012 London Games, however, resulted in not only gold, but controversy for women’s gold medalist, Ye Shiwen.
Shiwen, a 16 year-old Chinese prodigy, smashed the 400 IM world record in London in an unheard of 4:28.43 seconds. What should have been a shining moment for not only Shiwen, but China as a whole quickly turned to controversy. Soon after the race, it was discovered that Shiwen swam the freestyle portion (the last 100 meters of the race) in “58.68, compared with the 58.65 by [men’s gold medalist] Ryan Lochte when he won the same event” . John Leonard, the World Swimming Coaches Association’s executive director was quoted as saying that the performance was “unbelievable... a woman does not out-swim the fastest man in the world in the back quarter of a 400m IM... It just doesn’t happen.”
 |
| The Sun's comparison of Shiwen and Lochte's performances |
Though suspicion surrounded Shiwen’s performance, Julio Maglione, president of FINA, swimming’s international governing body, maintained that “swimming is absolutely clean” and no doping was involved in the record-breaking race. Bob Bowman, personal coach of Michael Phelps, also spoke out in Shiwen’s defense. “I don’t think that 4:28 is an impossible time in the 400 IM, I think it’s a perfectly logical time for someone to go... people do amazing things sometimes.”
As a former swimmer, I can tell you that it’s true that Shiwen’s race was extremely improbable. But then again, the best sports moments always consist of a recurring theme: beating the odds. How probable was it that Michigan would score in the final seconds to beat Notre Dame at the “Under the Lights” game in 2011? That the United States would beat the Soviet Union in hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics? That Michael Phelps would swim his way to a staggering 8 gold medals in Beijing?
 |
| Roy Roundtree's game-winning touchdown catch. |
Shiwen’s performance, while very obviously a rare athletic feat at the highest level, could just be that - rare. The swimmer’s test results were “clean” asserted Lord Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association. “She deserves recognition for her talent.” Let's face it - there is two major reasons Shiwen isn't receiving said recoginition for her world record: her sex.
“You got beat... by a girl!” To put it simply, this is one of the most embarrassing phrases that can be said to a young boy. It’s been driven into our minds since childhood that boys and men must always be the fastest, strongest, and most capable. One of the class readings from last week further drives home this point; in “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Comportment Motility and Spatiality", Iris Young asserts that there is a definite difference in female and male body modality. “In assuming herself as a girl, [one] will take herself up as fragile... the more a girl assumes herself as feminine, the more she takes herself to be fragile and immobile, and the more she actively enacts her own body inhibition.”
Throughout history, it’s been the woman’s duty to play the beautiful, weak “damsel in distress”. It’s the twenty-first century, why can’t we finally play the part of powerful, strong athletes? Instead of being praised for measuring up to a standard set by men, Ye Shiwen was publicly called out by some of the most powerful people in the world for doping even in the absence of any concrete evidence.
I’ll be honest, I barely watched the Olympics this year. I watched the opening and closing ceremonies, along with anything that had to do with Romania and that was pretty much it. I did however hear about the Ye Shiwen controversy (thanks Yahoo! News) and I must say that I am surprised that a 16 year old girl was able to beat out a 27 year old male. I’m not a sexist or anything; just the age difference is what I’m most shocked about. I’d be more surprised if a 14-year-old boy was able to beat out Ryan. It’s just that I assume that since Ryan has had more years of experience and training, he would be faster than a person that is just 16.
ReplyDeleteI’m not surprised of Ye Shiwen’s accomplishments. The body is an amazing and complex subject that I don’t know much about, so don’t worry I’m not training to be a doctor; I’m majoring in Economics. I remember reading an article a while back ago about how a mother yanked a door out of her car to save her child or that a female was able to lift a car one time.
I honestly congratulate her; it’s a major step for the female movement. I’m not surprised by the reaction she is receiving though. Men have always viewed women as the weaker race that can’t do the hard work. Have you heard of Angela Merkel? She’s the current Chancellor of Germany and I believe she is a complete bad ass. I’d be afraid to get on her bad side and I’d be intimated if I were in a room with her or Hilary Clinton. Both those females hold positions that have great power and authority, especially Angela. Props to Ye Shiwen for accomplishing the impossible, maybe in four years I’ll pay more attention to the Olympics then.
First off, Shiwen's race was incredible and my congratulations goes out to her. However, I would have to disagree with you because in today's day and age, I don't blame people who were questioning the results. With so many athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, when a woman almost beats Ryan Lochte, one of the fastest swimmers on the planet, one has to be skeptical. I don't think people necessarily care if a woman beats a man, it's just that there is no denying the fact that men's bodies are biologically much stronger than women's (or at least have the capabilities to be). Ryan Lochte is one of the fittest individuals on the planet. Being that he is a male, due to his biology he has an incredible edge over even the most fit and strongest female. It's just a fact.
ReplyDeleteI think that today's society has reached a point where people would actually root for a woman to beat a man. For example, many people are really excited and eager for the first female president. Americans always like the underdog. I don't think that people necessarily were angered that a woman (Shiwen) almost beat a male (Lochte), I just think that common sense tells us that this is extremely unlikely, and being that so many athletes use drugs to gain a edge, people had a right to be skeptical.
I remembered the first thing I said when I heard this is that she must have been doping. There was no way a girl could come that close to breaking the men’s world record. But then the thought dawned on me that maybe this girl was actually faster than a man. Even though Ye Shiwen came up clean for everything people still seem to have their doubts. By beating a man she was doing the impossible. There are almost seven billion people in the world so is it that surprising that a girl may be that fast? With so much diversity Ye Shiwen could very likely be the ultimate swimmer.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a shame that society dictates so much about what we think. It is true that generally men are more athletic than women, which is just biology, because of this when women beat men in athletics they often are viewed as weird. A good example of this is the phrase you used, “you got beat by a girl?!” Instead of praising the girl, you make fun of the guy. I feel that women can be cheated out of athletic accomplishments because of this thought. Women athletes have always faced a stigma of being unfeminine for being good, but recently I think that is starting to change. Hopefully in the future those stigmas can be completely eliminated.
Since I was not an avid follower of the olympics this summer, this was the first time I have herd and come across this controversy. It was really upsetting reading about this issue for the first time. The first thing that came to mind was that was it really that unbelievable that a women set a world record and beat a mans time. In my opinion, the accusation of Shiwen doping was made because men have a hard time accepting the fact that women can keep up and compete with men. If it was accepted that Shiwen broke the record with mere talent then that opens doors for women to think that they are more than capable of beating men, which men do not want. Society wants to maintain an image of a man dominated world. When in reality women are just as capable and even more capable than men; but that is not socially accepted.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, society might be eager and rooting for women in many aspects, but as soon as a women accomplishes the anticipated task society is not ready to accept it. Despite the success in empowering women, we have not reached the point where powerful women are accepted by all.
Lindsey, this was a great post. I really like how you tied everything together with the controversy and this course. In today's day in age, whenever a remarkable accomplishment happens in sports, the first think that is always pointed toward is doping/cheating. It's sad that an athlete can't achieve greatness anymore without being questioned if they are "clean." I followed the Olympics in depth this year, and there were a lot of competitors who accused of cheating due to their incredible performances. Even the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, was accused of cheating. There's no other way to explain their performances, so the media loves to point toward cheating.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the cheating scandals from the olympics, the Ye Shiwin story was by far the most intriguing. How could a 16 year old girl out-swim one of the greatest Olympic male swimmers of all time? It just doesn't make sense. However, we have to take it for what it is. Some might think there's no way this is possible Ye can do this without cheating, men have always been more powerful/faster than females. Personally I believe that she is innocent until proven guilty. Performance enhancement tests are performed on all the athletes of the Olympic games.
For the sake of woman and sports, I hope Ye is clean. If she ever tests positive for a performance enhancing drug, it will only add to the turmoil of doping in sports.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteThough Ye Shiwen’s last 50m was faster than Ryan Lochte’s - by about seventeen one-hundredths of a second - her finishing time trailed Lochte’s by a large amount (4:28.43 by Shiwen to Lochte’s 4:05.18). While her final lap may seem suspect to some, it became clear while watching the races that Lochte eased up in his last fifty meters due to his large lead. I firmly believe that no “foul play” occurred in Shiwen’s race. It seems as though many are criticizing her for two reasons: one, she’s a woman, and two, she’s from China.
Instead of denouncing Shiwen for an amazing race which, honestly, was proven to be clean through drug testing, we should celebrate her accomplishments. She’s an example of just one of the women in sports today that are breaking records and attaining goals once thought unattainable.
Furthermore, we should look critically at the comments made by John Leonard regarding Shiwen’s world-record swim; would John Leonard, a United States swim coach, find the same faults if say, U.S. swimmer Missy Franklin swam such an amazing race? I would argue that many of the disparaging remarks being made toward Shiwen are through a nationalistic lens - the United States and China are bitter rivals in not only sports but in industry and GDP. Why wouldn’t U.S. coaches, athletes, and citizens feel contempt toward a top athlete from a competing nation? Not to mention China’s well-documented history of doping, a prevalent practice for the nation’s athletes in the 1990s. However, I think it’s important that we don’t let Shiwen’s sex and the United States coaches’ nationalistic views get in the way of what clearly was an awe-inspiring performance by the Chinese swimmer.