Relishing global spotlight, Chinese swimming prodigy Ye Shiwen dismissed doubts of doping about her two gold-winning performances in London Games, saying that the allegations are "bit unfair" but wants to know why she is being targeted even after she was cleared of the charges.
Handling bouquets and brickbats with a sense of ease, the 16-year-old Ye, who is now famously known all over her country and the world as YE'S, said, "the allegations are a little bit unfair, but I am not affected by them at all."
Asked by the state media whether the allegations were rooted in bias against China, Ye, who was grilled at the press meet by foreign media even after she was cleared of doping charges by coaches of her rivals, said, "It's possible. Nobody ever suspected other countries' multi-gold medal winners. Why doubt me? I just won two."
On the front pages of every Chinese newspaper and flooded with encomium by millions of compatriots on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, Ye said she is relishing the headlines, "Yeah! She Won".
Started swimming at the age of six after her kindergarten teacher noticed she had much larger hands and feet than other children, Ye shattered the world record for the 400m individual medley with an eye-catching last-leg freestyle sprint on Saturday, which brought her under the microscope, with pundits alleging that her last 50 meters of 28.93 sec, faster than US swimmer Ryan Lochte's equivalent in the male event, could only be possible by drug use.
John Leonard, the head of the American Swimming Coaches Association, said, "Every time we see something unbelievable, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved."
Ye's counterpart Sun Yang, who also made history by being China's first male gold medalist swimmer after winning the 400m freestyle, was quick to offer his support.
"The doubt is unfair and does not take account of the effort involved. The Americans can win many gold medals without being questioned, but we can't," he said.