London 2012 Olympics: Body of evidence points to a swimmer punching well above her weight

HANNAH Miley is the Jessica Ennis of the swimming pool. According to the textbook, the 22-year-old from Inverurie is just not big enough, or bulky enough, to thrive in her chosen event.

Like multi-events in athletics, the 4x100-metres individual medley is, according to orthodoxy, the preserve of tall, rangy women.

Women with, as they say, “big levers” – or, as we say in layman’s terms, long arms and legs. Triangular women, like the ones East Germany used to manufacture.

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But just like Ennis, Miley has shown the limits of that orthodoxy. It’s how you use your levers that counts, not just the size of them. It’s how efficiently you move your body that matters, not merely its bulk.

Aided by the assiduous coaching of her father Patrick, the 5ft 6in Miley has consistently got the better of most of her larger opponents. Former world champion Mark Foster explained the process well yesterday when he said: “Looking at the different sizes of the girls, there should be a heavyweight and lightweight competition for this: Hannah is tiny.

“It is a really beautiful thing watching Hannah race, as she is so technically proficient. She doesn’t fight the water, doesn’t struggle through it. Every stroke is brilliant.” Of course, brilliance is by no means the preserve of just one competitor, and Miley is not the only swimmer to be punching above her weight in the individual medley. Nineteen-year-old American Elizabeth Beisel is also 5ft 6in, and along with Miley was seen – at least before the event – as the biggest challenger to Stephanie Rice.

The defending champion from Australia, Rice is taller and stronger than her two rivals. Now 24, she won this event and two others in the last Olympics in Beijing – each one in a world-record time. If that reminds you of Usain Bolt, you will have some idea of just how powerful Rice at her best can be.

But last night was about neither the brilliance of Miley and Beisel nor the might of Rice. Instead, the honours went to 16-year-old Ye Shiwen of China, who stormed clear of the field over the closing freestyle leg to win in a new world record of 4mins 28.43sec.

Finishing fifth, Miley, left, found little consolation in the fact that she had got the better of Rice. It is hardly back to the drawing board for her and her father – she continues to improve, and is obviously a world-class talent – but the emergence of Ye is a sign that the event is moving on.

Like Andy Murray in tennis, Miley may be in an environment where she has to run to stand still. She knows she cannot measure her improvement only against her own previous performances: she also has to take what everyone else is doing into account.

Miley faced up to that fifth-place finish with the same humility she has displayed in more jubilant times, apologising to anyone who felt let down. There could be no doubt that she had done her best, but it was unfortunate for her that her result put the seal on a day of disappointment for Team GB.

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After the joy of the opening ceremony and the feelgood factor it generated, we may have harboured the hope that home competitors would be spurred on to great things on Day One of the Games. But events took a downwards turn from a British point of view when Mark Cavendish failed to come close to a medal in cycling’s road race, and the evening session in the pool only added to the feeling that the euphoria of Friday night was being followed by a flat and very hungover Saturday. A lot now rests on the shoulders of Rebecca Adlington tonight.

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