Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen of China win Olympic gold......huh?

July 29, 2012 

Sun Yang wins Olympic gold in the 400 m freestyle

I was surprised to come home last night to find that China so far is winning the medal count, and Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen from China both won gold in….swimming? What? Swimming? Sun Yang got gold in the men’s 400m freestyle, while Ye Shiwen won the women’s 400m IM.

16-year-old Ye Shiwen

What’s even more amazing is how they did it. Ye set a new world record, beating the previous record holder who had set the record while wearing a rubberized wetsuit–which is no longer allowed. She swam the last 50 m of the IM faster than the new men’s 400m IM Olympic champion Ryan Lochte, who beat Michael Phelps.

Then, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen smashed the world record in the women’s 400 individual medley by more than a second: all the more remarkable because she swam the last 50 meters in a faster time than the new men’s 400 I.M. champion, Ryan Lochte, swam his last 50 meters.

Yang is the first Chinese man ever to win an Olympic gold in swimming. He holds the world record in the 1500m, and yesterday he came within .07 of breaking the 400m record–which was set by Paul Biedermann three years ago in a rubberized suit.

Man, Human Biodiversity (HBD) proponents are crying right now. “This ain’t supposed to happen! How can a Chinese guy win in swimming when they’re sooo small by the rules of HBD?” (For the record, Sun Yang is 6’6 and almost 200 lbs. He’s significantly taller than Jeremy Lin and significantly smaller than Yao Ming.)

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