Liu Zige wins women’s 200 fly: China’s first swimming gold

Let’s look at this objectively.

Zige Liu won China’s first gold medal in the pool in the women’s 200M Butterfly. She broke the world record (of 2:05.40) set by Australia’s Jessica Schipper when she swam a remarkable 2:04.18, an impressive feat when you consider less than a year ago her Personal Best (PB) was 2:09.45. A similar phenomenon occurred with Liuyang Jiao, who won silver in that same race, while having done very little prior.

So Schipper, the reigning world champion, came in third, swimming 2:06.26, which is 0.86 slower than the world record she’d established two years before. Amazingly however, Liu who was virtually unheard of in the pool, was able to improve by more than five seconds in less than a year. The final nail was placed into the Beijing Olympics Integrity’ coffin when after the race, Schipper was blood-tested, but the two Chinese women were not.

How has the world been so quick to forget the numerous doping scandals the Chinese swimmers have faced since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics? How naïve does China think the rest of the world really is? The 2008 Beijing Olympics have successfully managed to bring ‘farce’ to a whole new level.

If the Chinese legitimately won those two medals, then I whole heartedly congratulate them and celebrate with them.
But if it is true that they were not tested after the race, then there is room for doubt. If they know they earned the medals honestly, why would they allow such doubt to be created by not having been tested after the race? – that alone is self sabbotage and has no logic.

MiGustoEs:

OlympicWatcher has been posting those three paragraphs in every article regarding Liu Zige. Contrary to his first sentence, his train of logic holds no objectivity and instead reeks of xenophobia. He has not yet provided evidence that the two Chinese were not tested. Ths story would be much bigger if what he says is true.

I think he forgets that Eamon Sullivan shaved over a second off his time in a year. Perhaps we should point the doping finger at him as well. And what about the East Germans whose swimmers were notorious for steroid use through the 60′s up until the late 80′s? Should we be paying extra attention to them too?

OlympicWatcher: Give us evidence or put up with the results.

I will be absolutely outraged if China bypassed testing (which I heavily doubt they did). That would be sheer stupidity on their parts.

What a bunch of sour grapes…

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Jessicah Schipper’s coach sold swim plans
By Peter Badel | August 17, 2008 01:43am

Jessicah Schipper’s Ken Wood, admitted he received “big money” for the information that helped Liu Zige win Gold. Picture: Michael Dodge

JESSICAH Schipper’s coach has admitted selling the training program used by his protege to the Chinese swimmer who produced the race of her career to deny the Queenslander’s dream of gold.

In a revelation that will rock Australian swimming, coach Ken Wood says he sold his top-secret training methods – which transformed Schipper into the world’s best 200m butterflyer – to the Chinese coach of Liu Zige.

Wood, who is in Beijing as one of the coaches with the Australian Olympic team, admitted he received “big money” from the Chinese for the information.

“They pay for the programs,” Wood said yesterday. “They pay good money, big money. I wouldn’t help them for nothing.”

Schipper finished third in her favourite event to the Chinese pair of Liu and Jiao Liuyang, who both recorded remarkable improvements in their personal-best times.

But Wood denied betraying Schipper, saying he HAD severed all ties with China after Australia’s Olympic trials in March.

The 78-year-old would not reveal how much China paid for his private program – based on 40 years of swimming knowledge – but said the poor remuneration of Australia’s top swim coaches left him little choice but to seek international customers.

Wood’s program contains detailed information on stroke technique, weight training, diet and preparation for elite swimmers.

In an explosive interview with Beijing Now, Wood spoke of heartbreak at seeing Schipper beaten by Lui.

But he confirmed receiving a series of payments from Chinese coach Jun Wei, who in turn was granted access for Liu to Wood’s program and his pool, the Redcliffe High Performance Centre north of Brisbane.
Wood hit out at suggestions that Liu’s gold medal swim last Thursday was drug-assisted. Liu (2min 4.18sec) beat Schipper’s world record (2min 05.40sec) by more than a second.

Schipper’s mother, Jenny, said on Thursday she was “perplexed” by the emergence of Liu and Jiao, who came from nowhere to relegate the Queenslander to third.

But Wood said that Schipper knew of Liu because she had trained alongside her at Redcliffe.

“Lucy (Liu) came down three times in the past three years and then she went home to work on my programs, which they pay for,” Wood said. “Lucy has done work with me since she was about 15. I call her Lucy because I can’t pronounce her name.

“Her coach, Jun Wei, is a friend of mine and Lucy has been coming (to Australia) to work on my program.

“Other international kids have come down, but this one has come through and won.

“I’ve got a business of my own. The Redcliffe High Performance Centre is my business. I work for Australian Swimming when I’m on the teams but anyone can come into my program if they want to.

“I charge the (international swimmers) a lot more than I charge our local swimmers.”

Wood said he was torn by the sight of Schipper being beaten by a Chinese rival.

“I feel bitter-sweet, I do,” he said. “Money is one thing, I have to make a living, but Jess is my swimmer, I’ve brought her through since she was a 12-year-old – and Lucy has beaten her.”

Asked if he had cost Schipper a gold medal, Wood said: “I don’t know. I can’t answer that. But I wanted Jess to win. My heart is with Jess. I wanted gold for her. I didn’t want Lucy to win.

“When push comes to shove, I wanted my girl to win. I want to make it clear I didn’t help Lucy after the Olympic trials. I’m not going to coach anyone else against my swimmer.”

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IOC says stop drug innuendo about Olympic athletes

Julie-Anne Davies | August 16, 2008 08:56am
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Chinese swimmer Liu Zige drew doping claims when she beat Australia’s Jessicah Schipper.

WHEN it comes to pointing the finger at drug cheats, Australians are gold medallists. But the AOC says it’s sick of the constant innuendo.

As the Chinese continue to carve up the competition and race ahead in the medal tally, the same allegation keeps being thrown across the pool deck and the gymnastic and weightlifting halls: they must be cheating.

The breakthrough swim on Thursday by first-time Olympian Liu Zige, 19, who beat Australian favourite Jessicah Schipper, won her country’s third swimming gold since 1992 and sliced more than a second off the world record. But it was deemed to be too good.

But AOC vice-president Peter Montgomery was not impressed, saying he had had enough of the constant innuendo by the West.

“Often, Australian coaches are the first to complain in these sorts of situations but are very indignant when the reverse happens,” Montgomery said.

“Our athletes are in there to compete, and do the best they can, and the AOC does not wish to add to debate about this matter.”

Former Wallabies captain and official Olympic mentor John Eales, who is based in the athletes’ village, said China’s great leap forward should be judged more positively.

“If an Australian swimmer had improved that time (referring to Zige’s swim) by that much, there wouldn’t even be a thought of anything,” Eales said.

“We’d all be celebrating and so we’ve got to take the same attitude when looking at these performances. You have to assume people are innocent otherwise you can’t go and watch anything here and enjoy it.”

The IOC is conducting more than 4500 drug tests during the Games, including testing the first five place-getters in heats and finals, as well as targeting other athletes who are suspected of doping.

“The fact that they have doubled the testing over what was done in Sydney and there have been positive tests already demonstrates the cheats are being caught,” Montgomery said.

A more persuasive argument for the stunning performances by the Chinese at the end of the first week of competition is that they have planned this for seven years since they were awarded the Games in 2001.

Screaming crowds, intense competition to get on the team from a population of 1.3 billion and an endless state-financed push for success at the Olympics are the real reasons for China’s spectacular success, Montgomery said.

“Yes, they are the new super power in world sport but this is no surprise. They have modelled their sports institutes – they have several – on the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.”

Another compelling reason, and one that has worked against Australia, is that they have poached a number of the nation’s senior coaches in a variety of sports, including basketball, diving and swimming.

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