Athletes and internet users in China rallied to support Olympic swimmer Pan Zhanle after he faced criticism from an Australian swim pundit. The pundit claimed Pan’s 100-meter freestyle world record was not “humanly possible.”
Pan smashed his own 100-meter freestyle world record, cutting 0.40 seconds off the previous time set at the World Championships in Doha in February. Moreover, he defeated rivals including Australia’s Kyle Chalmers and Romania’s David Popovici.
China’s first gold medal in swimming at the Olympic Games in Paris was won by 19-year-old Pan, who finished in 46.40 seconds. In the China Daily on Friday, it was reported that he “completed rigorous doping test programs prior to and during the games with zero positive results,” which is how he won.
Prior to the games, Pan claimed to have taken 21 drug tests between May and July. “I cooperated with all the testing procedures and stayed confident that I am competing fair and clean,” he stated to the media.
“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 posted on Instagram that “It’s not humanly possible to beat that field.” Furthermore, he remarked that the swim was “not real life, not in that pool, against that field.”
On China’s Weibo platform, Hawke’s remarks were widely disseminated. One person wrote: “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,” another person added.
In April, it was discovered that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a heart medicine outlawed in 2021. Consequently, the swim team has been under close scrutiny despite being permitted to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
The results of a Chinese investigation that suggested the results were caused by contamination from a hotel kitchen were accepted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and WADA’s handling of the issue was supported by an independent review.
According to a World Aquatics audit, the governing body did not engage in mismanagement or concealment. The Chinese swimmers named in the reports by the German channel ARD and the New York Times did not include Pan.
China’s Global Times Newspaper stated that “the Chinese swimming team underwent more tests in two weeks than foreign athletes did in an entire year.”
During a news conference on Thursday, Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei—who took home the bronze in the women’s 200-meter butterfly final—answered inquiries concerning Pan.
“Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim so fast? Why didn’t anyone dare to question Phelps when he won?”
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