BEATING MEN AT THEIR OWN GAME?
“Why can’t a woman… be more like a man?” sang Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.
But he probably wasn’t talking about in the pool at the Olympics.
The extraordinary feats of 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen have the world talking.
Here’s how the UK’s Daily Mail reported it:
“Swimming sensation Ye Shiwen smashed another Olympic record in winning a second gold last night – as more than 1.5 million Twitter users in China attacked ‘smears’ linking her to drugs.
“The diplomatic storm surrounding the 16-year-old dubbed the ‘Mandarin Mermaid’ did little to harm her performance as she swam to victory in the 200m individual medley at the Aquatics Centre in a time of 2.07.05.”
But it is Ye’s performance in the 400m individual medley on Saturday night – in which she managed the last 50m of the freestyle leg in 28.93 seconds – compared with the 29.1 seconds 27-year-old Ryan Lochte clocked in the men’s event minutes earlier, that really has eyebrows raised.
She also swam faster than Michel Phelps who was in the same medley race.
“Faster that Phleps.” “Astonishing”. “Unbelievable.” “World Swimming in Shock”.
That’s how the headlines read.
It is the first time in Olympic history a woman has swum faster in any lap than a male gold medallist.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Lochte said on Sunday.
“She’s fast. If she was there with me, she might have beat me.”
Her dramatic performances have been damned by a senior US coach as “unbelievable” and “disturbing”.
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16 Responses to this article
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Lotta Haegg August 1, 2012
I love the blurring of the gender line. Women are fiercely competitive and how did it become “unbelieveable” or “disturbing” … At school in the 1980s local competitions used to make girls and boys compete in the same long distance races. My mum, knowing I was a good runner, was furious, until I came second. The next girl across the line was 10th. At go-carting I once beat all the guys. It infuriated the men. I goaded them by saying, “did you notice when we arrived my parallel park was better than yours too?”… I store Sydney’s maps in my head, and rarely need GPS or a map, so I guess I can clearly navigate as well.
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Tim Murphy August 1, 2012
You can add croquet to the list.
Jenny Clarke NZ won 2010 Australian Open.
Rosemary Graham won 2011 NSW Open.No doubt there are many more examples.
Like equestrian events men and women compete against each other on equal terms in most croquet events.
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Tim Murphy August 1, 2012
Croquet is a very hip sport
And just in case anyone thinks croquet is only for oldies. Jenny and Rosie are both well under 50. Best Aussie player, male, is 18. Best ranked Aussie woman is 24.
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soozy August 1, 2012
how about the time Zoe Goss bowled out Tendulkar at the SCG. Can’t remember when, but it was pretty impressive!
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soozy August 1, 2012
oops it was Brian Lara !
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Deb Spillane August 1, 2012
Hate to rain on the woman swimmer faster than the men meme, but it’s a “damned lies and statistics” example.
This article from yesterday’s SMH explains:
http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/swimming-london-2012/dont-be-too-quick-to-question-chinese-success-20120731-23b6j.htmlThis is the guts of it:
“It was a barnstormer of a swim. .. (but) surgically removing one stat from a 400m swimming race and seizing upon it has warped perceptions and conclusion.
That freestyle leg was dazzling but Ye isn’t faster than Lochte. Not even close. Lochte’s winning time in the men’s 400m IM was 4.05.18, compared to Ye’s 4.28.43. That’s a difference of
23.25 seconds. And Lochte’s lead-off relay sprint for the US men’s team was 47.89, a number to which Ye couldn’t get close despite being a gun freestyler.The manner in which the races were swum adds anotherlayer. Lochte had the race in hand by the time he turned on the freestyle leg. His other three strokes were good enough to give him a gold-medal lead and there was no clear and present danger ranging up on either side.
Ye had to hit the burners to motor past Beisel. She turned more than a body length behind and had to push with everything she had to catch the American… In any case, four other male swimmers did beat Ye’s freestyle split.”
So, it was a great swim, but some of the beaten men swam that last 50 faster than Ye. Simple fact is Lochte was so far in front he didn’t need a fast last 50. Ye did.
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Matt August 1, 2012
@ Deb Spillane. Stop using logic Deb. I can’t argue with you if you are going to bring facts into the argument.
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Allison August 1, 2012
Two words – Black Caviar. Given the date, thought it only fair to include her.
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Katie August 1, 2012
The men i know can’t stand it if I beat them at anything – chess, scrabble – let alone anything physical.
By the way – it’s she swam, and she has swum.
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sami August 1, 2012
Maybe women are getting better because now we finally have resources available to us. Many womens sports don’t attract major sponsorship and women are forced to not only train just as hard as men in the same sports, but hold down jobs in order to fund their training, equipment and travel.
Suddenly women ARE as interesting as men and get deservedly more media time (eg basketball) and they can dedicate themselves to it properly. Others (eg cricket) have a way to go.I remember holding the class record for pushups (the proper ones!) and situps in high school, easily beating the boys. I could do 100 of each. I was so proud!
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Matt August 1, 2012
Almost every time we see these freakish athletes eventually they get caught out. The world is suspicious of Chinese female swimmers because let’s face it, they’ve been caught cheating time and again. My prediction: Ye will either test positive at some point in the future or suddenly for no reason move into obscurity never to be seen in a pool again.
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Nicki August 1, 2012
Had a great t-shirt many years (1986/87) ago from Alaska:
“Alaska – where men are men and women win the Iditarod”Iditarod Dogsled Race won by
Susan Butcher 1986-1987-1988-1990.
