Ye Shiwen, who swept the 2012 Olympic individual medleys at age 16 with eye-popping times, is not on China’s Olympic swimming roster.
Ye was not one of the 19 women named to the team on Tuesday, according to this release.
At the 2012 London Games, Ye shattered the women’s 400m IM world record by 1.02 seconds, swimming the final 50 meters faster than Ryan Lochte did to win the men’s 400m IM. She later broke the Olympic record in the 200m IM.
Ye struggled since, but came back to take silver medals in both IMs at the 2019 World Championships behind Hungarian Katinka Hosszu. She posted her fastest times in more than five years.
But Ye was slower at recent domestic meets and not expected to be named to the team in either IM. She ranks third in the nation this year in both IMs and the 200m breaststroke.
In diving, China won every individual gold medal at the most recent Olympics and world championships. It’s bringing all of those champions (in events on the Olympic program) to Tokyo save Rio women’s platform winner Ren Qian.
Ren, the youngest gold medalist in Rio across all sports at age 15, was not on China’s roster for 2019 Worlds, either.
In Tokyo, China will again try to win every Olympic diving gold medal for the first time. It won six or seven of the eight in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!