China's state media, netizens rally around Pan after claims 100m swim not 'humanly possible'

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02/08/2024 03:56

By Farah Master and Bernard Orr
       HONG KONG, Aug 2 (Reuters) - China's state media,
athletes and netizens rallied to support Olympic swimming
champion Pan Zhanle after critics including an Australian swim
commentator said his world record swim in the 100 metres
freestyle was not "humanly possible". 
    Pan smashed his own 100 metres freestyle world record,
shaving 0.40 seconds off the previous mark he set at the World
Championships in Doha in February, to humble rivals including
Australia's Kyle Chalmers and Romania's David Popovici.
    The 19-year old Pan finished in 46.60 seconds to take
China's first swimming gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games.
His win came after he "completed rigorous doping test programs
prior to and during the games with zero positive results," the
China Daily said on Friday.   
    Pan said he took 21 doping tests from May to July prior to
the games. "I cooperated with all the testing procedures and
stayed confident that I am competing fair and clean," he told
the newspaper. 
    "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 his
Instagram that "It's not humanly possible to beat that field"
and that the swim was "not real life. Not in that pool, against
that field."
    Hawke's 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 has 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 WADA's handling of the case.
    A World Aquatics audit 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.
   Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei, who won the bronze medal in the
women's 200 metre butterfly final, responded to questions about
Pan during a press conference on Thursday.
    "Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim so fast?
Why didn't anyone dare to question Phelps when he won?"    

 (Reporting by Farah Master and Bernard Orr; Writing by Farah
Master; Editing by Tom Hogue)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))