While some in the swimming community have called into question Pan Zhanle‘s world record in the 100 freestyle on Wednesday, his competitors are coming to his defense.
The 19-year-old from China clocked a winning time of 46.40, crushing his own global standard of 46.80 from February for the biggest world record drop in this event since 1976 — and the first world record of the meet in what has been dubbed a “slow” pool due to its shallow depth. Pan beat Australia’s Kyle Chalmers (47.48) by 1.08 seconds, the largest margin of victory in an Olympic 100 free final since 1928.
“I think 46.4 changes swimming, for sure,” British sprinter Ben Proud said on Thursday. “It’s a huge drop, it’s fantastic, and it shouldn’t be questioned. It was a great swim by a good athlete and all the other stuff should be taken care of behind the scenes by the people who are in charge. I mean, we sat and watched and just thought, ‘Wow.’
“I’m not going to swear,” said Proud, who tied for the top qualifying spot in the 50 free (21.38) on Thursday, “but it was just a phenomenal swim and to do that in the final against the best in the world winning by a second is something you won’t see very often.”
After earning his third consecutive Olympic medal in the 100 free, Chalmers told reporters that he trusted Pan’s swim and that he “deserves that gold medal.” Romanian 19-year-old David Popovici, who won bronze in 47.49, chimed in that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” Popovici previously held the world record at 46.86 from 2022 and already has his sights on Pan’s new target.
“Pan smashed the race. Massive props to him,” Popovici said. “That only means that we’re going to try harder and work harder. If we work harder than him, maybe we win gold. I think making an even faster time than Pan’s is possible. There are people alive now and swimming who can do it. It’s just a matter of putting it together and doing it at the right moment.”
Pan was not one of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in 2021, a case that was cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency due to food contamination. He has been tested 21 times so far this year, according to World Aquatics’ database.
“Last year I received 29 tests, and it has never been positive,” Pan said. “I was tested after the race and we will see the result.”
homeboy wasn’t part of the group that tested positive. Good for him. I’m very critical of the Chinese govt but this guy did it clean.
All the Chinese swimmers including pan are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Win: DRUGS!
Lose: Choker! Drugs wore off!
My first reaction after reading his comments about chalmers and alexy was to wish he just let his swimming do the talking. I guess I wanted him to be “liked”.
But then I thought about it and I was like screw that, it may have been a misunderstanding but i understood his point, did you really think the reception to Chinese swimmers from western teams has been warm?
What a king to deliver in the biggest race considering the expectations and pressure.
It’s classic Anglosphere logic:
If I win, it’s despite you cheating.
If you win, it’s because you cheated.
There’s a famous study where white people who complained about affirmative action wanted test scores to matter, and then as soon as they were told Asians scored higher, they backtracked.
What these kind of people want is for only white athletes to win.
lol this is not even related but I love how they are like … the Chinese won diving because they train too hard. The Chinese get into the Ivy Leagues because they study too much. No duh? How dare they be willing to sacrifice to achieve success.
Eh what do I know I’m just a Chinese bot.
Definitely exceeded expectations and it’s awesome to see him shatter his own record in that pool. Can’t imagine how frustrating the speculation and suspicion must be for this kid, but as you said, his swimming did all the talking necessary. But based on everything I’ve seen and read about Pan’s competitors in this meet, they all seem pretty graceful. After WADA’s coverup of the China/TMZ mess, I can’t imagine their frustration either.
They’ll regret it later
Brett loves his fallacies thats why there’s no reasoning with the man
Jesse Owen’s story in 2024
Let’s be clear here. Even if Pan tested positive tomorrow, that still wouldn’t justify Brett’s (as well as the rest of the swimming community’s) actions to go full guns blazing making the claims he did without any evidence. “My friends are the fastest swimmers in history” is quite simply an arrogant and elitist (if not racist) assertion to make that’s completely disrespectful to the hard work and past achievements of the Olympic champion. This is the current world record holder we’re talking about. There would not have been any situation in which Pan wouldn’t have been accused of doping. If he won by a slim margin, it would have been that he only out-touched Chalmers because of doping. If he… Read more »
By the logic that he is doping simply because he won by too much, then Katie Ledecky would also be accused of doping. However, these same people don’t accuse her and never have.
Regarding Brett Hawkes mental breakdown on Instagram:
He has hosted at least 3 swimmers on his podcast that popped positive tests and not questioned them at all, in fact even going the distance to clear their names.
He coached Cesar Cielo and keeps bragging about that, and he also popped a positive test.
He does not have any moral highground to criticize Pans swim.
Furthermore I dont see it more unbelievable that a 19 year old breaks a PB with 0.4s than a 33 year old going 1.5s below PB in a relay…
I think it’s funny that he fawns over David Popovici, who also breaks World Records and whose father works in pharmaceuticals. ROmania also has a ton of doping borne out of the same USSR program as Russia.
That feels like a lot of the same kind of evidence that he’s using to sink Pan.
why would a world class athlete want to work with someone who does not believe it is possible to be that fast?
The post-race rant with accusations and boastful comments by Brett Hawke about his expertise, experience and “friends”, while embarrassing for most people whose egos are in check, is not surprising. This is the same guy who refers to female swimmers/athletes as “chicks” and went on a tirade about how Dressel “owed him” an explanation after he chose to come back after taking a needed break to care for himself and his wellbeing. Earlier this year, he was banned from the pool deck at the Doha World Championships. If I’m an elite swimmer, coach, aspiring competitive swimmer, sports media, fan, etc., I wouldn’t associate. His ego and ridiculous accusations and comments speak for themselves. There are far better ambassadors.
Seems like an entitled self centered little c*nt. I listened to some of his podcasts because of the interesting guests he has and it always baffles me how he manages to make so much about his interviews about himself. Definitely needs to check his ego
Missy Franklin and Katie Hoff’s “Unfiltered Waters” podcast is solid. Give it a listen!
I don’t find Pan’s time more surprising or suspicious than Peaty’s 57.1 in Rio or Ceccons 51.6.
Pan has been 46 several times previously and just got a near perfect race. It just looks crazy because everyone else is still doing 47 mids. The first 47 was in 2000. The real question is why aren’t more people dropping 46s. My personal opinion is a lot of the guys are too big. You don’t need to be Schwarzenegger to do the 100 free.
if a large contingent of TeamGB had been caught doping when Peaty swam those times I think there would have certainly and justifiably been some suspicion.
Regarding Pan: I’ve decided to accept and celebrate the swim until such time as evidence materializes and points to the contrary.
Pan never tested positive despite being tested extensively. Probably broke a personal record on how many times he has been tested this year.
He also wasn’t even involved with the contamination cases. Which ironically those swimmers haven’t done so well.
And Pan was already the World record holder before the race began. He didn’t merely break someone else’s World record but his own. World record holders tend to break their own records yet when he does that, it’s called as “impossible” and “makes no sense”. It comes across as sore losers when one believes it’s really that surprising for him to achieve that.
I certainly dont find it more surprising than a 46.0 relay split from a 47.6 swimmer
The 46 low was from Lezak which has a pretty good explanation. He had a very aggressive exchange time and drafted off of Bernard (the soon to be gold medalist) in a not-slow pool.
When you look for an explanation for Pan’s swim, it’s hard not to put that into the context of the recent allegations against his team.
To clarify, I think it’s wrong to accuse Pan of doping without any evidence, but I also think it’s normal for someone to have questions.
Luckily, I can celebrate Pan’s magnificent swim and new world record, knowing that it’s okay to change my mind if evidence ever arises in the future.
I’ll give him 0.7 on the exchange fine. The drafting, some people argue Pan went out quickly to stay ahead and “get pushed” forward by the big guys waves so that argument is for both then. I’m not discrediting Lezak at all I’m just saying we need to give Pan the benefit of a doubt until he tests positive.
I agree that Pan deserves the benefit of the doubt. That swim was amazing and I’m excited at the thought of swimmers regularly hitting a 46.
I had not considered riding a wave away from the wall. That’s fascinating to think about. Thanks for sharing.