Pan Zhanle has emerged as one of the best up-and-coming sprint freestylers in the world over the last year, but what many might not know about him is his primary focus has previously been in the distance events.
Pan really came into the limelight for the first time in 2022, as at the age of 17, he tied the Chinese Record in the semis of the men’s 100 free at the World Championships in Budapest (47.65) before finishing fourth in the final.
The now 18-year-old has taken things to a new level this week, first breaking the Asian Record in the 100 free (47.22) and then dropping a massive personal best of 1:44.65 in the 200 free on Thursday at the Chinese National Championships.
As a young swimmer, Pan’s best event was actually the 1500 free.
In 2019, at the age of 14, he won the event at the Chinese Summer National Championships in 15:33.48, a time that would rank second all-time in the boys’ 13-14 U.S. National Age Group Rankings (Jesse Vassallo holds the NAG at 15:31.03, set all the way back in 1976).
Pan also went 4:02.17 in the 400 free and 8:10.57 in the 800 free at the same meet in 2019, which would rank him 18th and fourth, respectively, among U.S. boys in the 13-14 age group.
Pan’s 1500 free swim from four years remains his fastest ever, while his personal best times came down in the 400 free (3:52.31 from May 2021) and in the 800 free (8:08.65 in September 2020), both set while he was 16. He would rank seventh in the U.S. in the 15-16 age group in the 400 free, while his 800 free performance would sit 40th.
He went went significantly faster in the 400 in March at the Chinese Spring Championships, clocking 3:47.22.
According to Chinese media, Pan really only began developing his sprinting abilities during the pandemic, and last year, his coach said they were training for everything from the 50 to the 1500, even trying the 10 km open water event in 2021.
It was in May 2021 when he really started to make an impact in the sprint events, clocking 48.74 in the 100 free at the Chinese National Championships before getting down to 48.59 at the National Games in September.
After making his major international debut at the 2021 Short Course World Championships, Pan exploded with his performances at last year’s Long Course Worlds in Budapest, and he continued to thrive by making the 100 free final at the 2022 SC Worlds.
His performance in the 200 free on Thursday came a little bit out of nowhere, given that his previous PB on record is the 1:48.53 he produced at the 2021 Chinese Nationals (though he did split 1:45.71 on the 800 free relay at the 2022 World Championships).
However, given his distance background, coupled with his newfound sprinting prowess, it’s no surprise he clocked in at 1:44.65, closing in a scintillating 26.06 over the last 50, to take over the top spot in the world rankings and near Sun Yang‘s Chinese Record (1:44.39) set in 2017.
Australian coach Dennis has gone to China. He is now in charge of Pan and Fei these zhejiang swimmers.I think his joining will be helpful to these zhejiang swimmers, just as he helped Sun Yang at that time.Most of the records were set by zhejiang swimmers.By the way, Pan’s Chinese coach is also in charge of Sun Yang with Dennis from 2014 to 2018.
I’m not sure how much things have changed in the last 5 years, but I’ve trained with 3 Chinese coaches in my career and one thing they REALLY REALLY emphasize for all swimmers is aerobic base (I think Dressel mentioned that Greg Troyy is similar as well), that’s why you see most top Chinese swimmers were distance swimmers as some point, even sprinters
Following the footsteps of Ryk Neethling
Dang, beat me to it.
He will swim 800 free on Friday and 400 free on Saturday. If he wins 400 then potentially he might win the following events at the home Asian Games (he is from Zhejiang province which hosts the games):
1) 100m
2) 200m
3) 400m
4) 4 * 100 free
5) 4 * 100 mixed free
6) 4 * 100 medley
7) 4 * 200 free
8) 4 * 100 mixed medley
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Pan Swam a 3:47 400 FR at Spring Nationals this year. Many Chinese swimmers started off as mid-long distance freestylers as it is perceived to be a reliable gold if you can be the best in the world. Examples that come to mind: Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan, Wang Shun.
Makes me think of Ryk Neethling, 5th in the 1500 then 4th in the 100 at the next Olympics, incredible talent.
Think he ended up establishing some sprint WR in SCM as well
100 IM! Not to mention the short course titles in the 100-200 free