''Swimming on the whole is a clean sport,'' Alan Thompson said after Australia's record-smashing surprise in the Olympic women's 200m freestyle relay yesterday.

''Too much, people are looking for reasons [for record-breaking performances] other than the real reason swimmers are swimming really well and coaches are coaching really well.

''If you set the bar high, people will lift to that bar.

''It's such a shame these days that every great performance has suspicion attached to it.''

Australia's relay team carved almost six seconds off the old world record to win gold.

Thompson said suspicion still shadowed swimmers from the old East Germany 20 years after its doping regime was exposed.

Asked about China's strong showing in the pool at the Beijing Games, he said: ''I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt, and some accolades for their performance.''

The comments came after outspoken American swimmer Garry Hall Jr said the reaction to his comments on doping in swimming, which coincided with the rise of Australian Eamon Sullivan, was outrageous.

US Olympian Hall raised suspicions earlier in the year about Sullivan's pace in the 50m freestyle, sparking an angry retort from Grant Hackett.

Hall told Channel Seven yesterday his comments were justified and denied implying Sullivan was a drug cheat. ''What I did say is, and it's important to revisit, that this is an unprecedented time drop [in Sullivan's swim] because he was one of the first to compete in the new suit, shaved and tapered,'' Hall said. ''And I said there's doping in sport, there's a lot of history of doping in sport, in all sports, swimming is no exception, there's doping in the sport of swimming and because of so many doping violations in the past, when you see an unprecedented time drop like that, people are going to be suspicious. But I didn't name Eamon or anyone else.'' AAP