'That was a man's swim. There are guys in our national championship who are not doing that kind of time.' - Karen Pickering of England casting aspersions on either China's 100 metres freestyle record breaker Le Jingyi, or on England's male swimmers.
'All the swimmers are talking about them. They're so manly, even their voices. I've never seen a 16-year-old like that [Dai Guohong] before. In fact I've never seen any kind of woman like that before.' - American swimmer Kristine Quance joins the chorus of suspicion about the well-built Chinese women.
'You all know China has a population of one billion. So it is no surprise some world champions come out.' - Chinese swimmer Liu Limin rejects the drug rumours.
'It is true we have made remarkable progress in swimming over the past few years, and at this championships in particular. There are several reasons for this. First, we had talented swimmers coming up to replace those who retired [after the 1992 Olympics], while in the West young swimmers haven't come up yet.
'Second, you don't know much about China. You don't know anything about the training going on in China. There is misunderstanding and jealousy when you talk about doping. Third, I think this doping problem is political now. The sports world always was the domain of Western people. They just cannot tolerate that Asian people can be good in sports.' - Chinese assistant swimming coach Zhou Ming rants, raves and makes a few good points.
'Some were blaming Eric [Legrix] but it doesn't matter who the jockey is if the horse is not good enough or too badly handicapped. Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery can't win on donkeys.' - French trainer Patrick Biancone explaining his lack of success last season and why his stable jockey should not be blamed. 'I have seen a lot from the DFB but this is absolute rubbish. This must have been written by someone who has never touched a ball.' - Germany's World Cup striker Rudi Voller's reaction to a letter from the DFB [German soccer federation] saying players who handle the ball when scoring will face suspension if they don't own up immediately to the referee.
