Ye Shiwen, who broke a world record and swept the 2012 Olympic individual medleys at age 16, appears to have earned a place in Rio by winning the 200m individual medley at the Chinese Championships on Wednesday.
Ye clocked 2:12.02 in the final after posting the fastest prelim and joint-fastest semifinal times. That time would have placed eighth at the 2015 World Championships, which is exactly where Ye finished at that global meet (but in a slower time).
She made up for a disappointing seventh-place finish in the 400m individual medley in 4:50.74 on Sunday, reportedly slowed by a stomach illness.
Ye has struggled since she swam eye-popping times at the London Games. She placed eighth and 15th in the individual medleys at the World Championships in August.
Ye’s times this week were well off her world record 4:28.43 and Olympic record 2:07.57 from the London Games finals.
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