Ye puts up defence against doping allegations

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Ye Shiwen is on the way to becoming one of the names of the 2012 Olympic Games. The 16 year-old has won two gold medals, with Tuesday night seeing her add the 200 meters medley gold medal to the 400 meters medley she has already won.

Ye Shiwen has won two gold medals, with Tuesday night seeing her add the 200 meters medley gold medal to the 400 meters medley she has already won.

Ye Shiwen has won two gold medals, with Tuesday night seeing her add the 200 meters medley gold medal to the 400 meters medley she has already won.

Ye set a new world record in the 400 meters medley final and also established new Olympic records in both the semi-final and the final of the 200 meters medley.

She has also had to deal with accusations of doping after knocking over five second off her personal best in the 400 meters, although it has also to be said that many have also defended her, saying that she has passed all anti-dope tests and WADA requirements and that jealousy could also be involved in some of the finger pointing.

Straight after her 200 meters win Ye said she had not been affected by the doubts, but she still strongly denied the accusations.

"Absolutely not!" she said in response to a direct question whether or not she had taken any illegal substance.

"I think that some people are biased, in other countries people win a lot of medals and nobody says anything against them, so why are they saying it about me. I think it is unfair for me, but I was not affected by that," continued Ye.

"I think it is because of our training, because we work really hard. I have never counted, but I swim around two and a half hours in the morning and the same in the afternoon and I have done that for nine years," added the 16-year-old, who said she knows who to thank for her displays.

"I want to thank my coaches and team-mates while my parents have helped me, that have helped me a lot, which is why I am not affected by the outside noise," she commented.

Ye also discussed the training she carries out in Australia, saying it is different for me working with swimmers from a different country.

"They have a different vision, their athletes are more pro-active, so that's why I get a different feeling when I work in Australia," she explained.

Finally she had words of admiration for Michael Phelps, who earlier in the day had won a historic 19th Olympic medal.

"Michael Phelps is my idol, he is so strong and has won so many medals, I'd like to win as many medals as he did, but I don't know about that," said Ye, who received a sterling defense of her performances from bronze medal winner Caitlin Leverenz.

"The anti-doping agencies do their stuff, so I would like to congratulate Ye because she has had a fantastic Olympic Games up to now winning those two gold medals, it is easy to point fingers, but you could point fingers at anyone and it is not for me to do that. She swam a great last 100 and has worked hard to do that," said Leverenz.

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