Chinese women's performances seem fishy?

Not nearly as suspect as the Jamaican men and women.

Same with the Russians in the marathon. Slews of women excel at a world class level, but where are the men?

Nevertheless, China and Russia are countries with very large populations so it surprises me that they don't have competitive men and women at all events.

the only reason i see is the enormous alcohol consumption in Russia. That is male phenomenon. Seriously, chinese and russian ladies are suspicious since the men cannot do squat.

No more suspicious than the Ethiopians, when you consider they're trained by Jos Hermens, a doper in his day, and Kostre, who back in the day worked with doped E. Germans. What can you do? It's PC to go after, accuse and dq athletes from some countries while the same people recoil in horror when other 'protected' people are accused of the same or are even caught.

Similarly, just about every Chinese man smokes while hardly any of the women do.

Not all Ethiopians are represented by Hermens. And go ahead provide what specifics you know about Kostre and any East Germans. I'll wait.

Has Hermens been caught? or admitted to doping??

yyy wrote:

Has Hermens been caught? or admitted to doping??

He's privately admitted it.

Really what do I know, but 1/6th of the world's population is in one country, and I think they have an organized athlete development program. Add to it strong work ethic and it is more of a shocker to me that they do not dominate as a country most every athletic events. But than again, I am just guessing.

As I recall, the Chinese distance performances in the 1990s were not so much "fishy" as "wormy"

40% of China's population works on farms. Farmer = no chance at elite athletics. But the rest of the population should still be big enough to produce top athletes.

wayfool wrote:

I should first preface this post by saying that I'm a Chinese born american and derive a great deal of pride when I see these Chinese performances in the marathon. However, I'm still very skeptical of their performances for one major reason.... where are the Chinese men??? I find it hard to believe that the women can be so dominant in the marathon, while the men are essentially non-existent at the same event. Anyone else find this eerily similar to Russian women's dominance of the middle distance events, while the men's side is singularly represented by Borzakovskiy?

It’s a valid point - but why confine their doping endeavours to their female marathon runners?

Years ago, the Chinese women were blatantly doping in all sports, athletics, swimming, weightlifting and cycling.

After being caught out a few times, they do seem the have cleaned up their act. Chinese women are nowhere near as dominant in those sports these days as I noticed, for instance, by their indifferent performances at that last world swimming championships and other similar events.

I would have thought, were the temped to dope their marathon squad, they’d have done it for their own Beijing Olympics.

Did I hear the race commentator correctly - the winner was 18 years old, had run 4 marathons in the last 12 months and had run her first at 14?

Answering my own question here.

It seems Xue Bai is 20 years old - weighs 105 lb and is just over 5ft tall.

She didn’t run 4 marathons on 12 months - she’s run very few in fact.

She ran 2.37 at 15!

In 2007 she ran 2.27 and 2008, she ran 2.23 - and that’s it.

Hardly Paula Radcliffe territory.

Still, the 2.25’s are about par for women’s championship marathons these days and the Chinese times were hardly spectacular.

If they’d have run sub 2.20, it might have been questionable.

Surely runners from other countries should have been capable of matching the Chinese women’s times.

Paula runs 2:16 and nobody asks about doping. But Chinese chick runs 2:25 and OMG!

in my country, running is great tradition. shotput for the pig-like.

Are you saying Chinese people smell like fish? That's not cool.

Privately admitted it? You're an idiot. Neil Armstrong privately admitted not landing on the moon. So it didn't happen, right?

OMG, on the runs, you're an idiot.

china dog wrote:

Paula runs 2:16 and nobody asks about doping. But Chinese chick runs 2:25 and OMG!

I'm not questioning any individual performance, it's just as a group, they did surprising well, while there isn't a single participant on men's side. A little bizarre don't you think? Even if you confine the analysis to Asian countries, The Japanese 6th, 11th, and 14th, which is similar to 2nd, 7th, and 14th on the women's side.

Furthermore, my beef isn't with the time. Something systematic seems to be going on on the women's side.

Of course Chinese women's distance running has a questionable history.

But, perhaps the Chinese just decided to focus a lot of attention and resources on the women's marathon this year. It's not like they totally destroyed the field with unbelievable times.