The coach of Dutch swimming stars Inge de Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband has slammed those who accused them of using performance-enhancing drugs as "jealous and stupid".

The outstanding performances in the Olympics of de Bruijn, who has set 10 individual world records this year, and van den Hoogenband have led to whispers about doping.

"You know the people are stupid, especially people who are into swimming and especially coaches who say that, they shouldn't be here," Jacco Verhaeren said. "If I thought anyone used drugs or whatever, I wouldn't be here.

"I think it's a little bit of jealousy, I don't know why they do that, it makes me sad but that's it and I don't want to think about it."

US women's coach Richard Quick had claimed that some Olympic swimmers were using drugs but he fell short of identifying the culprits.

"I absolutely do not think this is a drug-free Olympics," he said.

"I'm not pointing the finger at anybody or any nation here, I'm going on intuition, maybe in some cases the depth of the field."

AFP