Weekly Wrap: Golden Sun, missing mojos

Yang Sun of China competes during the Swimming Men’s Freestyle 1500m Final on day sixteen of the 15th FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi on August 4, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Sun Yang won his third individual gold medal at the FINA World Championships, adding the 1,500m title to his wins in the 400m and 800m. He kept pace with Canadian Ryan Cochrane for most of the race, and then blasted away in the final two lengths. It was well outside his own world record pace, but he never looked troubled.

What’s more, he could easily have had a fourth gold: his anchor leg in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, which pulled China up into the bronze medal position, was a full second quicker than anyone else swam in either the individual or relay events.

Meanwhile, China’s other Olympic hero in the pool appears to have forgotten how to swim. Ye Shiwen amazingly finished out of the medals in the 200m IM last week, and followed that up with 7th in the 400m IM. Her time was 3.6 seconds slower than her qualifying time and more than 10 seconds slower than her world record time set in London last year. Looking at the splits, it’s her breaststroke that needs the most work, but her mojo has well and truly gone.

Think China’s golfing dominance is a long way off? Maybe not, given the fact that their juniors have just beaten the Americans for a second straight year.