Paul Kimmage: China crisis silence clashes with pursuit of clean sport
Swimmers like Ellen Walshe deserve to be served better by authorities
Zhang Yufei is among the Chinese swimmers who returned positive dope tests. Photo: David Balogh / Getty
We’re in the studio on the first night and Bill [O’Herlihy] says, ‘What’s going to happen here?’ I said, ‘She’s probably going to win the gold medal.’ And he was almost giddy: ‘Gold medal! Day one! This is amazing!’ And it was a kind of strange because I think Bill always considered himself a journalist.
‘And he was well versed in swimming. His two daughters, Jill and Sally, were involved in the sport — Sally was national standard — and he understood how it worked and what it took; that people don’t come from nowhere. But that night he was just the conduit, and we were both happy to tip-toe around everything.
