Monday, February 04, 2013
Sun Yang seems to be in trouble
After Sun Yang's great success to make Olympic history for Chinese male swimmers, he seemed to get himself into a pot of boiling water. About a month after Olympics, he quickly hopped into National university Games for golds and the local media claimed he pretended to be big gun and refused to take photos. Later, the media revealed that his national teammates including Wang Shun, Li Yunqi, Shao Yiwen and Hao Yun criticized Sun behind his back in the Weibo (Chinese twitter). Last month, he was training in Yunnan swimming camp and had a dispute with 2 reporters on the photographing issue. The reporters claimed they were forced to delete their photos from their camera by Sun and his companion whereas Sun and his companion had his own say. Only recently, another news broke when he wanted to change coach and almost at the same time, announced he is in relationship with a girl who worked as a steward on the plane that he boarded to Australia for training camp in 2010. Whether he can make his flight to Australia for training camp this month is still unknown before he sorts things out with his coach and the officials in the provincial team. Behind all the prizes, praises and reputations, it comes all kinds of challenges and resistance for him to move forward to become a one-hit star or one of the greatest swimmers.
Saturday, February 02, 2013
The 2 swimmers I know admitted their doping offence...
So far, I only learnt from the news that only two swimmers admitted their drug cheat after many years: Huang Xiaomin and Xiong Guoming. Huang, from Heilongjiang province, is silver medalist of women's 200m breaststroke at 1988 Seoul Games. She failed to qualify in 1992 Barcelona Olympics when she lost to Lou Xia, from Zhejiang province in 100m breaststroke at Olympic trial. Lou represented at Olympics and later had an even greater achievement that she discovered Ye Shiwen, Olympic champion in London Games. Later she sent Ye to train under her husband, Xu Guoyi in the provincial and then national team. Back to Huang. Huang is one of the 1st batch of golden flowers, alongside Lin Li, Yang Wenyi, Zhuang Yong, Wang Xiaohong and Qian Hong. Let's look at their "now & then" pictures (top left: Zhuang Yong, Middle left: Yang Wenyi, Bottom left: Qian Hong, Top right: Wang Xiaohong and Middle right: Lin Li).
These five golden flowers also appeared in Seoul Games with Huang Xiaomin in which Yang and Zhuang medaled in sprint freestyle events while Qian won a bronze in 100m fly. They had greater success at 1992 Games when they contributed 4 golds and 5 silvers and also 2 world records. Most of them retired after 1993 National Games except Lin Li who still swam until 1996 Atlanta Olympics in which she won bronze in 200m IM. Huang also retired after 1993 National Games. She later admitted to German media she did use drugs in her swimming career and now, she is coaching in Korea. Since the rest of the golden flowers were not tested positive in their career, one can say they are clean and others will always have doubts on their splendid performances in the golden era. Nevertheless, these five flowers are all successful women in their lives now.
Huang admitted to the Western media so it should be quite well-known in the swimming world. Most of banned swimmers and athletes from athletics never admitted taking illegal substances, including Lu Bin, Wu Yanyan and Sun Yingjie. In 2005, Xiong Guoming, on the other hand, said," Yes, I did take the drug" in a local interview (http://sports.sohu.com/20050816/n226688229.shtml). However, it did not seem to make any waves in the Chinese media, probably because he is just a banned swimmer in the past and never a Olympic or Worlds finalist. Xiong, from Shanghai, was a rising star who won multiple 1993 National Games and 1994 Asian Games titles. After Asian Games, he was tested positive and banned for 2 years. In 1997, he was back to win 400m IM in National Games by setting a new Asian record, 4:19.03, which should be within top 5 in the world in that year. In the following year, he went back to the Asian Games pool and won 200m IM. In one more year, he was on the news again that he was tested positive for clenbuterol. The interesting part is that he only admitted the 1st cheat and attributed the 2nd case to grilled pig liver, a common organ food in Chinese cuisine. He believed the pig liver is the source of the clenbuterol which has been used widely in raising pigs in China. This is the similar reason for Ouyang Kunpeng's reason in 2008 when he claimed he ate a lot of barbaque meat before the test. CSA also thinks that it can be a serious issue and has strict rules for all their 2012 Olympic swimmers not to eat meat outside and only eat the meat imported from their reliable oversea supplier.
These five golden flowers also appeared in Seoul Games with Huang Xiaomin in which Yang and Zhuang medaled in sprint freestyle events while Qian won a bronze in 100m fly. They had greater success at 1992 Games when they contributed 4 golds and 5 silvers and also 2 world records. Most of them retired after 1993 National Games except Lin Li who still swam until 1996 Atlanta Olympics in which she won bronze in 200m IM. Huang also retired after 1993 National Games. She later admitted to German media she did use drugs in her swimming career and now, she is coaching in Korea. Since the rest of the golden flowers were not tested positive in their career, one can say they are clean and others will always have doubts on their splendid performances in the golden era. Nevertheless, these five flowers are all successful women in their lives now.
Huang admitted to the Western media so it should be quite well-known in the swimming world. Most of banned swimmers and athletes from athletics never admitted taking illegal substances, including Lu Bin, Wu Yanyan and Sun Yingjie. In 2005, Xiong Guoming, on the other hand, said," Yes, I did take the drug" in a local interview (http://sports.sohu.com/20050816/n226688229.shtml). However, it did not seem to make any waves in the Chinese media, probably because he is just a banned swimmer in the past and never a Olympic or Worlds finalist. Xiong, from Shanghai, was a rising star who won multiple 1993 National Games and 1994 Asian Games titles. After Asian Games, he was tested positive and banned for 2 years. In 1997, he was back to win 400m IM in National Games by setting a new Asian record, 4:19.03, which should be within top 5 in the world in that year. In the following year, he went back to the Asian Games pool and won 200m IM. In one more year, he was on the news again that he was tested positive for clenbuterol. The interesting part is that he only admitted the 1st cheat and attributed the 2nd case to grilled pig liver, a common organ food in Chinese cuisine. He believed the pig liver is the source of the clenbuterol which has been used widely in raising pigs in China. This is the similar reason for Ouyang Kunpeng's reason in 2008 when he claimed he ate a lot of barbaque meat before the test. CSA also thinks that it can be a serious issue and has strict rules for all their 2012 Olympic swimmers not to eat meat outside and only eat the meat imported from their reliable oversea supplier.
Friday, February 01, 2013
Li Zhesi falls from doping
Li Zhesi became known when she won 50m free at City Games 2007 with a time 25.40s, as a 12 years old. In 2008, she was a semi-finalist in Beijing Olympics followed by being part of 4x100m medley winning team at Rome Worlds in 2009. In the same year, she also swam the 2nd fastest women 50m free in Asia, 24.56s at National Games, only behind Asian record holder, Le Jingyi at 24.51 set at Rome Worlds in 1994 during the golden flower era. She is also Asian Games champion in 2010 but she seems to be unable to improve her time in 50m free after the tech suit was banned. In 2012 National championships in April, she was even out of top 3 in the 50m free and then the doping news broke later after the championships. The news confirmed her absence of Olympics due to her doping announced by CSA but unconfirmed if she can compete in 2013 National Games (she definitely will not be legitimate to swim in National Games if she is banned for at least 2 years since she will still be under the banned period when National Games starts). It was only a few days ago that her ban was really confirmed by FINA.
From swimnews.com, Craig Lord claimed her coach is Feng Zhen, who is also a coach of Li Xuanxu, Olympic bronze medalist. It is strange that all the news in the past up to 2011 I read about Li Zhesi, her coach is Yuan Yue, who also trains Wang Junyao (who swims sprint freestyle and butterfly). On the other hand, Feng's pupils were/are all either long distance freestylers or IMers including Li Xuanxu, Yang Fan, You Meihong, Yu Xin, Huang Chaosheng and Yang Zhixian. Among them, Li Xuanxu and Yang Zhixian are both London Olympians in women's/men's 400m IM. Currently, Li Xuanxu is still training well and just a week ago, she swam 8:29 for 800m free at a small meet in Australia. If Feng is banned, Li Xuanxu's training must be affected in some way since in China, coach-swimmer relationship can be like parents and children that swimmers see their coach more than their parents by a whole lot.
But in the end, there is a person called Wang Shun who becomes the banned coach. Is he a scape goat by the way? I think he is not the IM swimmer also named Wang Shun.
Li Zhesi is from Liaoning Province, a province that produces a lot of fine athletes in athletics and swimming and at the same time, creates a lot of headlines in doping. The most stunning achievement from Liaoning province is the world records of middle long distance running Ma's army produced at Chinese National Games in 1993 that are still untouchable until now. Ma's army is a female middle long distance running team coached by Ma Junren. In 1992, Ma's army runner Qu Yunxia became the 1st Chinese to win a medal (Bronze) in middle distance (women 1500m) at Olympics. In recent interview, Qu still believed that she could win the race in Barcelona and attribute her loss to her inexperience at big meet. Nevertheless, she became 3000m world champion in 1993 Stturgart Worlds with her 2 teammates sweeping silver and bronze. Her teammate, Wang Junxia and Liu Dong also won 10000m and 1500m, respectively. Then Wang became the leading role as she broke world records in 10k and 3k at Chinese National Games. For 10000m, she became the 1st woman to break the magic 30-min mark. Qu, at the same meet, broke 1500m world record. In 1995, Ma's army disbanded and only Wang Junxia succeeded at Atlanta Olympics in 1996 after she overcame a lot of resistance with her coach. She also pre-maturely retired after Olympics as a 23-years-old. Ma's army once revived in 1997 National Games breaking women's 5000m world record and aimed high at Sydney Olympics in 2000. To show Ma's determination at Olympics, he unprecedentedly sent his runner overseas to run at IAAF meets. It was in vain when the doping news broke. In the end, only one of his runners, Li Ji passed the doping test and was selected to the Olympics (but how & why?) and finished 6th in women's 10000m.
For Liaoning swimmers, Lu Bin is the most famous in the early 90s. She was finalist (8th) in women's 200m free at Barcelona Olympics in 1992. She won 200m IM at Worlds in 1994 when her Lianning teammate, Dai Guohong took 400m IM. Lu then broke women's 200m IM world record at Asian Games but was later tested positve with another 6 athletes. Although Dai never had a postive result, she retired immaturely the next year. After Lu , the biggest swimming star from Liaoning is Chen Yan, who broke women's 400m IM world record at National Games in 1997 and became 400m free/400m IM World champion at Perth Worlds in 1998, which was (and still is) another doping dismal for China. She was also a 2-time Olympian (1996 and 2000) and swam for University of Hawaii until 2003. People always confuse her with another Chen Yan, who was banned for doping in 1998 before Asian Games. The latter Chen was one of the top national backstrokers in the same period of time from Jiangsu province and a Olympian in 1996 swimming 100m back.
Another random piece: Liu Zige, women's 200m butterfly Olympic champion, is also from Liaoning province but never represented for the province. She represents for Shanghai from very young age.
Now, it is Li Zhesi, a 18-year-old swimmer...
For my next blogs, I will go a little deeper in some history of Chinese Athletics and swimming based on my memory
From swimnews.com, Craig Lord claimed her coach is Feng Zhen, who is also a coach of Li Xuanxu, Olympic bronze medalist. It is strange that all the news in the past up to 2011 I read about Li Zhesi, her coach is Yuan Yue, who also trains Wang Junyao (who swims sprint freestyle and butterfly). On the other hand, Feng's pupils were/are all either long distance freestylers or IMers including Li Xuanxu, Yang Fan, You Meihong, Yu Xin, Huang Chaosheng and Yang Zhixian. Among them, Li Xuanxu and Yang Zhixian are both London Olympians in women's/men's 400m IM. Currently, Li Xuanxu is still training well and just a week ago, she swam 8:29 for 800m free at a small meet in Australia. If Feng is banned, Li Xuanxu's training must be affected in some way since in China, coach-swimmer relationship can be like parents and children that swimmers see their coach more than their parents by a whole lot.
But in the end, there is a person called Wang Shun who becomes the banned coach. Is he a scape goat by the way? I think he is not the IM swimmer also named Wang Shun.
Li Zhesi is from Liaoning Province, a province that produces a lot of fine athletes in athletics and swimming and at the same time, creates a lot of headlines in doping. The most stunning achievement from Liaoning province is the world records of middle long distance running Ma's army produced at Chinese National Games in 1993 that are still untouchable until now. Ma's army is a female middle long distance running team coached by Ma Junren. In 1992, Ma's army runner Qu Yunxia became the 1st Chinese to win a medal (Bronze) in middle distance (women 1500m) at Olympics. In recent interview, Qu still believed that she could win the race in Barcelona and attribute her loss to her inexperience at big meet. Nevertheless, she became 3000m world champion in 1993 Stturgart Worlds with her 2 teammates sweeping silver and bronze. Her teammate, Wang Junxia and Liu Dong also won 10000m and 1500m, respectively. Then Wang became the leading role as she broke world records in 10k and 3k at Chinese National Games. For 10000m, she became the 1st woman to break the magic 30-min mark. Qu, at the same meet, broke 1500m world record. In 1995, Ma's army disbanded and only Wang Junxia succeeded at Atlanta Olympics in 1996 after she overcame a lot of resistance with her coach. She also pre-maturely retired after Olympics as a 23-years-old. Ma's army once revived in 1997 National Games breaking women's 5000m world record and aimed high at Sydney Olympics in 2000. To show Ma's determination at Olympics, he unprecedentedly sent his runner overseas to run at IAAF meets. It was in vain when the doping news broke. In the end, only one of his runners, Li Ji passed the doping test and was selected to the Olympics (but how & why?) and finished 6th in women's 10000m.
For Liaoning swimmers, Lu Bin is the most famous in the early 90s. She was finalist (8th) in women's 200m free at Barcelona Olympics in 1992. She won 200m IM at Worlds in 1994 when her Lianning teammate, Dai Guohong took 400m IM. Lu then broke women's 200m IM world record at Asian Games but was later tested positve with another 6 athletes. Although Dai never had a postive result, she retired immaturely the next year. After Lu , the biggest swimming star from Liaoning is Chen Yan, who broke women's 400m IM world record at National Games in 1997 and became 400m free/400m IM World champion at Perth Worlds in 1998, which was (and still is) another doping dismal for China. She was also a 2-time Olympian (1996 and 2000) and swam for University of Hawaii until 2003. People always confuse her with another Chen Yan, who was banned for doping in 1998 before Asian Games. The latter Chen was one of the top national backstrokers in the same period of time from Jiangsu province and a Olympian in 1996 swimming 100m back.
Another random piece: Liu Zige, women's 200m butterfly Olympic champion, is also from Liaoning province but never represented for the province. She represents for Shanghai from very young age.
Now, it is Li Zhesi, a 18-year-old swimmer...
For my next blogs, I will go a little deeper in some history of Chinese Athletics and swimming based on my memory
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