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Olympics

Some facts about Ye Shiwen's swim

Nature volume 488, page 459 (2012)Cite this article

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We write on behalf of the Chinese Biological Investigators Society, a professional organization of overseas and native Chinese scientists (www.cbisociety.org), to express our concern over your online News 'Explainer' about the performance of Ye Shiwen, a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer who won gold medals in the 200- and 400-metre individual medley during the London 2012 Olympics (http://doi.org/h55; 2012). We feel strongly that you overlooked some important facts.

You join in the widespread speculation that Ye's performance was anomalous, in which it has generally been implied that no one else has accomplished such a feat before without the aid of performance-enhancing drugs — a premise that, in our view, stems from data cherry-picked to support an unfounded accusation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Weimin Zhong

  2. Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Hao Wu

  3. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

    Linheng Li

Authors
  1. Weimin Zhong
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  2. Hao Wu
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  3. Linheng Li
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Correspondence to Hao Wu.

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Zhong, W., Wu, H. & Li, L. Some facts about Ye Shiwen's swim. Nature 488, 459 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/488459a

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Comments

Commenting on this article is now closed.

  1. Cheun Jye Yow

    I believe Ye Shiwen won them fairly.

  2. Wu Albert Cheng

    Great article! Thanks for showing us how science should be done.

  3. Serena Jannet

    This is how you can make science better. I have to say I congratulate Ye Shiwen for showing us how is done.

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