2012 London Olympics: China Wins Two Gold Medals in Swimming, Sun Yang gold in 400m Freestyle to become first Chinese man to win title, Korea’s Park Taehwan gets silver

LONDON — It was a rough opening night in the pool for defending Olympic champions, above all a certain Michael Phelps, but it was a historic night for the Chinese.

Sun Yang became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming title by pulling away from Park Tae-hwan on the final two laps to secure the 400-meter freestyle in an Olympic record time. Then, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen smashed the world record in the women’s 400 individual medley by more than a second: all the more remarkable because she swam the last 50 meters in a faster time than the new men’s 400 I.M. champion Ryan Lochte swam his last 50 meters.

That is surely an Olympic first. “I honestly didn’t realize how far ahead I was,” said Ye, a short-haired teenager from the Chinese city of Hangzhou, which, until now at least, was more famous…

via China Wins Two Gold Medals in Swimming – NYTimes.com.