Ledecky's time big time drops have come during the post-puberty growth spurt years when teenage girls commonly drop a ton of time. So as extreme as some of her swims have been, they fit a very common developmental pattern.
Unless they started in the sport late, big time drops as a female post-grad (or local equivalent) are far less common and tend to invoke the specter of Michelle Smith.
So we agree that Ye's 400IM in London is legit, then, right?
Let me guess. You were shocked when Lance admitted that he had been doping for years, correct?
Then what about Phelps? Lochte? Michael Andrew?
Speaking of Michael Andrew, this feature story about him was just published in the Kansas City Star:
www.kansascity.com/.../article29739196.html
Or, like Hosszu, does the fact that she didn't fail a drug test that means she's on drugs?
No, it was Ye's performance that was consistent with doping (she was faster than Lochte over the final 50m).
The fact that she didn't fail a drug test means that she wasn't careless.
"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. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of the 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."
--John Leonard
No, it was Ye's performance that was consistent with doping (she was faster than Lochte over the final 50m).
The fact that she didn't fail a drug test means that she wasn't careless.
"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. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of the 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."
--John Leonard
Lochte also died on his last 50. You have to consider speed of the whole race and not one split. The speed of her total race is comparable in time differential with other records.
Ledecky's 400 free record is actually only 8% slower then the mens record while Ye's 400 IM record is 10% slower so you could say Ledecky is more suspicious. I will keep giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and not worry if anyone is cheating.
If you think anti-doping measures are ineffective, that's fine. But you shouldn't just accuse someone of cheating automatically just because they did well.
I think it was a huge mistake to choose the team a year ago.We have seen that choosing the team shortly before the meet, as we do at the Olympics works well. Look at all the great swimmers from NCAAs who aren't on the team. Also,it is a disgrace to not have the best 50M stroke swimmers from the US at the meet.Hopefully this will be the kick in the butt some swimmers need to get ready for Rio.
Hosszu finally had a mediocre swim in the 200 fly semis. I don't know why she is swimming the 100 and 200 free ... Iron lady hubris.
Less time between the free and the fly for her than Ledecky had between the 1500 and the 200 semis, and I'm in the camp that says recovering from an event only gets harder when you get old enough to legally drink in your home country. With no Belmonte and no big Chinese guns in Kazan due to injury and illness, the 200 fly was so Katinka's for the taking.
All she had to do was get a lane in the finals, which she didn't do because she left it all in the pool in the 200 free. Big meet planning blunder on her part, IMO, because a podium finish was so much less of a sure thing for her in the free than the fly would have been.
