Ye Shiwen says US swim coach John Leonard is unprofessional (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen said US coach John Leonard was unprofessional for suggesting she had taken banned substances.

Ye made international headlines after she smashed the world record in the 400-meter individual medley and shaved five seconds off her personal best.

More from GlobalPost: Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen's "unbelievable" world record Olympic performance: Was it too good to be true?

The 16-year-old’s performance at the London Olympics, where she has won two gold medals, sparked speculation that she was doped. 

Leonard added fuel to the rumors when he called Ye’s record-breaking swim in the 400m IM “disturbing” and “suspicious.”

"History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable,' history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, told the Guardian.

The comments outraged Chinese media, which said the teenage swimming sensation was being judged by an “old mentality,” an apparent reference to China’s well-known doping past.

"The coach [Leonard] was not professional," Xinhua quoted Ye as saying on Friday, Reuters reported today.

"If a foreign swimmer achieved this result they may say it is a miracle. I won't be affected by any accusations."

Ye has strenuously denied taking banned substances and the British Olympic Association said the young swimmer passed tests for performance enhancing drugs.

More from GlobalPost: Ye Shiwen not doped, British Olympic Association says 

#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.