Whatever happened to principle of innocent until proven guilty?

The principle that one is innocent until proven guilty is a common tenet which everybody in a democracy, from lawyer to layman, is well versed with. The United States is the great upholder of democracy in the world today. But it seems not all Americans believe in the rule of law, at least not John Leonard.

The Olympics has been set alight by the accusations levelled by Leonard at Chinese teenage swimmer Ye Shiwen that she is a drug cheat. And this comes without any shred of proof other than the long-held belief that any extraordinary feat of sporting endeavour from China must have had its birth in a test tube.

Ye, only 16, set a world record in the 400 metres individual medley, shaving five seconds from her personal best. This performance saw the doubters labelling her a cheat. Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said history showed that every time something 'unbelievable' occurred in the sport it turned out to involve doping.

Was this the reaction Roger Bannister faced when he became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes? What did people think when a 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to record a perfect 10 at the Olympics? Did anyone think Mark Spitz's haul of seven golds in 1972 would be surpassed?

It is sadly a sign of the times when we cannot just sit back and savour a golden moment in sport without second-guessing ourselves. China has in the past been found guilty of cheating in the pool. Its swimmers were caught red-handed in 1998 at the Perth world championships after being found with human growth hormone.

The infamous Ma's Army of distance runners has now gone down in drug folklore in athletics. All these cases have built an environment where an unusual result from a Chinese athlete is instantly questioned by the Western media.

Ye was trailing American Elizabeth Beisel, the world champion, after the penultimate breaststroke leg when she turned on a devastating final two freestyle lengths - the last 50 metres in 28.93 seconds, which was quicker than Ryan Lochte did in winning the men's event. The immediate knee-jerk reaction to this was incredulity as to how a girl could swim faster than a man. There is a simple answer: Lochte was in cruise mode having already done more than enough to win the race. His overall time in the 400m individual medley was more than 20 seconds faster than Ye's.