China rallies around Pan Zhanle after claims his 100m free swim was not ‘humanly possible’
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China's Pan Zhanle after winning the 100m freestyle in world-record time at the Paris Olympics.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HONG KONG – China’s state media, athletes and netizens have rallied to support Olympic swimming champion Pan Zhanle, after critics, including an Australian swim commentator, said that his world-record swim in the 100 metres freestyle
The 19-year-old smashed his own world record, shaving 0.40 seconds off the previous mark he set at the world championships in Doha in February, to humble rivals Kyle Chalmers of Australia and Romania’s David Popovici.
Pan finished in 46.40sec to take China’s first swimming gold in Paris. His win came after he “completed rigorous doping test programmes prior to and during the Games with zero positive results”, China Daily said on Aug 2.
The teen, who said he had been given the cold shoulder by some of the other swimmers, insisted he took 21 doping tests from May to July.
“I cooperated with all the testing procedures and stayed confident that I am competing fair and clean,” he said.
“I did a lot of aerobics and endurance training to strengthen my push and kick in the final split. We have also adopted a scientific underwater monitoring and analysing system to review our techniques and strokes, so that we can train better and more effectively.”
Australian coach and commentator Brett Hawke had posted on Instagram that “it’s not humanly possible to beat that field by a body length”.
His comments were widely shared on China’s Weibo platform, with one user commenting: “It’s so cool to see them incompetent, angry and breaking their defences.”
“He is praising us, saying that position is impossible but sorry we did it,” said another.
The Chinese swim team have been under intense scrutiny since revelations in April that 23 of the country’s swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021 but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and an independent review backed its handling of the case.
A World Aquatics audit also concluded there was no mismanagement or cover-up by the governing body.
Pan’s name was not among the Chinese swimmers listed in the reports by The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD.
“The Chinese swimming team underwent more tests in two weeks than foreign athletes did in an entire year,” China’s Global Times newspaper added.
Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei, who has won three bronzes in Paris, responded to questions about Pan during a press conference on Aug 1, saying: “Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim so fast? Why didn’t anyone dare to question (Michael) Phelps when he won?” REUTERS
