[1] Despite allegations of doping, China's Ye Shiwen pulled away from the rest of the field to strike a medley double for the fifth straight time in Olympic history since Michelle Smith did so in 1996, Yana Klochkova in 2000 and 2004, and Australia's Stephanie Rice in 2008.

Coming from third at the final turn, she opened up her lead with a superb freestyle leg to establish a new Olympic record and a sterling gold-medal time in 2:07.57.

[2][3] Australia's Alicia Coutts produced a striking effort to claim the silver behind the Chinese teen in a lifetime best of 2:08.15, adding it to her Olympic hardware with a full set of medals.

[6][7] Rice, the defending Olympic champion, finished fourth in 2:09.55, while U.S. world record holder Ariana Kukors lost her chance to climb the podium with a fifth-place time in 2:09.83.

[7] Earlier in the semifinals, Ye threw down a fastest freestyle split of 30.59 to set an Olympic record and a textile best in 2:08.39, cutting off Rice's previous standard by six-hundredths of a second (0.06) in a since-banned high tech bodysuit.