Olympics swimming: Ye Shiwen says suspicion is 'sour grapes'

Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen says the controversy surrounding her gold-medal winning performances at the London Olympics is just "sour grapes".

The 16-year-old raised eyebrows when she smashed the world record to win the 400m individual medley before adding a second IM title over 200m.

But Ye told QQ.com: "I have proved myself in the Games."

Asked what she thought of her doubters, she responded: "I think [it] may be just sour grapes."

The swimming prodigy carved five seconds off her personal best in the 400m IM, setting a new world best of four minutes 28.43 seconds.

Leading US coach John Leonard called her performance "disturbing". However Lord Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, later revealed that Ye had passed all drugs tests and said she deserved recognition for her talent.

Ye said the secret of her success was simply that her training for the London Games had been focused on the 400m medley.

"It's my coach's strategy," she said. "The 400m medley was scheduled in the first day. If I won this one, that could boost my confidence for the rest of the races.

"But in fact, I was quite nervous in the following 200m medleys, because everybody expected me to win, a lot of pressure."

The teenager went on to comfortably win the 200m individual medley and set a new Olympic record.

"I started swimming when I was in kindergarten, and started training for swimming in primary school," added Ye, who also won the 200 IM at last year's world championships in Shanghai.

"My first coach thinks I have talent for swimming, my body shape also suits the sport very well."

The Chinese Swimming Association has also issued a statement in response to the controversy surrounding Ye, saying their swimmers took more than 2,500 drug tests last year without a single positive result.

"China's recent breakthroughs in swimming are the results of scientific training and hard work."