Ye Shiwen in the 200m medley race at London Olympics.

Ye's size-42 feet are extraordinarily large for a Chinese girl, which makes it difficult for her to find suitable shoes. This fact, to some extent, has led to her addiction to online shopping. She once bought five pairs of boots online, but later found out that with her tight training schedule, she had no time to wear them.

Like many teenagers, Ye is a big fan of detective stories. Her favorites are Japanese manga character Conan and the world-famous Sherlock Holmes. In fact, Ye has a logical mind and is extremely intelligent when it comes to swimming. "She keeps thinking about my instructions and follows them very well in the pool," her coach said. Once the coach corrects her wrong movements, she rarely repeats them again.

Ye traveled to Australia twice to train with two internationally-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. The exercises were so hard that initially, she couldn't stand the warm-up session. However, she managed to finish the trainings and her father attributed her success partly to this experience.

After Ye won her first medal at London Olympics, her parents received numerous congratulations from friends, relatives and journalists. "I was so excited that I stayed up all night when she won the game," her father said. The last time he saw Ye was in June. After the Games, he plans to take his daughter to Hong Kong Disneyland because she has longed to visit there for a long time, he said.