See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.
The Chinese team won two gold medals in the pool at the Tokyo Olympics, and Pan Zhanle had a major hand in both of them.
Pan’s earth-shattering swims in Paris helped land his coach, Zheng Kunliang, the 2024 Swammy Award for Asian Coach of the Year.
Zheng has been working with Pan since 2018, providing him with a strong distance freestyle base before really honing in on the sprint events over the last few years.
Pan was an Honorable Mention in our 2023 awards for Breakout Male Swimmer of the Year, having a strong showing at Worlds in Fukuoka and then joining the sub-47 club in the 100 free at the Asian Games, but he took things to a new level in 2024.
At the World Championships in Doha, Pan established a new world record in the men’s 100 free, clocking 46.80 leading off China’s 4×100 free relay to lower David Popovici‘s mark of 46.86 from 2022.
Pan walked away from those championships with four gold medals, as China won that relay and also claimed the men’s 4×200 free and the mixed 4×100 medley, and Pan won his first individual world title in the 100 free (47.53).
A swim that flies under the radar for Pan in 2024 was his split in the 4×200 free relay in Doha, where he was 1:43.90 on the third leg as China edged out South Korean and the United States in an epic race.
At his debut Olympics, Pan performed incredibly under the lights in Paris.
The now 20-year-old kicked things off by breaking the Olympic Record in the 100 free leading off the Chinese men’s 4×100 free relay, touching in 46.92 before the team ultimately finished 4th.
That was only a precursor to the individual 100 free, where, after a shaky prelim, qualifying 13th in 48.40, Pan advanced 1st out of the semis in 47.21, and then delivered arguably the best swim of the year in the final, shattering his world record by four-tenths in a time of 46.40, marking the biggest chunk taken off the 100 free world record since 1976.
The swim won him gold by a staggering 1.08 seconds, the largest margin of victory in the event since 1928.
Pan made more history at the end of the meet in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, anchoring China to an upset gold over the Americans with the fastest split in history. Pan came home in 45.92, overtaking Jason Lezak‘s historic 46.06 leg from 2008 for the fastest ever, as China touched in 3:27.46 to top the U.S. (3:28.01) and hand them their first-ever loss in the event in Olympic competition.
Pan added a third medal at the Olympics by swimming on China’s preliminary relay of the mixed 4×100 medley that went on to win silver, and he didn’t end his year there, competing at all three legs of the 2024 World Cup.
Pan leaned on his distance background to win the men’s 400 free (3:36.43) and 800 free (7:35.30) at the second stop of the series in Incheon, with the latter marking a new Chinese and World Cup Record. He also won the 100 free in Singapore (46.09), and set a personal best of 1:41.59 in the 200 free to finish 3rd at the same meet.
Zheng, a 2004 Olympic swimmer for China, also coached distance freestyler Fei Liwei to a strong year in the pool.
Fei made the final of the men’s 1500 free at the World Championships in Doha, clocking 14:50.51 to place 7th. The 21-year-old then set a trio of personal best times at the Olympics, placing 6th in the men’s 400 free (3:44.24), 10th in the 800 free (7:47.11) and 9th in the 1500 free (14:50.06).
He also teamed up with Pan on the Chinese men’s 4×200 free relay that finished 4th.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Cui Dengrong (CHN) – Cui, our 2023 Asian Coach of the Year, saw more success from his athletes in 2024, with two of them earning Olympic medals and a third claiming an upset world title. At the World Championships in Doha, Dong Zhihao, 18 at the time, roared to gold in the men’s 200 breast, clocking 2:07.94. Then, at the Olympics, one of Cui’s star swimmers, Zhang Yufei, won six medals to lead all athletes in Paris, earning individual bronze in the women’s 50 free, 100 fly and 200 fly and adding relay medals with a silver in the mixed 4×100 medley and a pair of bronzes in the women’s 4×100 free and 4×100 medley. Making his Olympic debut, Dong placed 4th in the 200 breast, clocking 2:08.46. Qin Haiyang, who had a dominant performance at the 2023 World Championships, had a relatively disappointing showing in Paris, placing 7th in the 100 breast and 10th in the 200 breast while going significantly slower than he had the year prior. Qin rallied to post a pair of quick breaststroke splits on China’s mixed (57.82) and men’s (57.98) medley relays, earning him one gold and one silver medal. He closed off the year on a high note, winning gold in the men’s 50 and 100 breast at Short Course Worlds, breaking Asian Records in both events during the SC season.
- Norimasa Hirai (JPN) – Well known for coaching the likes of Kosuke Kitajima, Kosuke Hagino and Yui Ohashi, Hiromasa coached Japanese teenager Tomoyuki Matsushita to an upset silver medal at the Olympics in Paris, as he earned silver in a time of 4:08.62 three days before his 19th birthday. That swim marked a PB by nearly a second and a half, as Matsushita previously went 4:10.04 at the Olympic Trials in March. That swim was the lone swimming medal for Japan at the Olympics.
Past Winners:
- 2023 Swammy – Cui Dengrong (CHN)
- 2022 Swammy – Jeon Dong-Hyun (KOR)
- 2021 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2020 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2019 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2018 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai & Takayuki Umehara (JPN)
- 2017 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2016 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2015 Swammy — Sergio Lopez (SGP)
