The athlete from the Middle Kingdom was crowned Olympic champion in the 100m freestyle on the evening of Wednesday July 31, smashing his world record to a level not seen for nearly 50 years.
Australian coach and former swimmer Brett Hawke has questioned the integrity of the performance achieved on Wednesday evening, July 31, at the Paris La Défense Arena by Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle, who smashed his 100m freestyle world record to be crowned Olympic champion, saying it was “not humanly possible”.
“I’m angry after this race, for several reasons,” the former sprinter says in a video posted on his Instagram account. An anthology race where Pan improved his record by 40/100 (46 sec 40), in a proportion not seen for 48 years.
“It’s not real, you can’t beat a team like that – Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy – like that, with a head start. It’s not humanly possible,” Hawke says.
Read also :
Suspicions of doping by Chinese swimmers: the World Anti-Doping Agency gives the reasons for its silence, linked to the Covid pandemic
“My friends, from Rowdy Gaines and Alex Popov to Gary Hall Jr. and Anthony Irvin to ‘King’ Kyle Chalmers, are the fastest swimmers in history,” says the 49-year-old coach. “I know these people intimately, I’ve watched them for 30 years, I’ve studied the sport, the phenomenon of speed. I’m an expert on it,” continues Hawke, now a U.S. citizen.
Kyle Chalmers, Pan’s runner-up at the Paris Olympics after being Olympic champion in Rio in 2016 and Olympic vice-champion, already, in Tokyo in 2021, does not share his elder’s opinion. “I have confidence in him, I think he did everything he could to be there and he deserves this gold medal,” said the Australian. “I did everything possible to win this race, and I think everyone did the same by remaining faithful to the integrity of the sport,” he said.
Pan’s monumental slap in the face to his world record has rekindled suspicions of doping against swimmers from China. But the “flying fish” – his nickname – is not among the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive in early 2021 for a banned substance, trimetazidine, and were never sanctioned after the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency concluded that food contamination occurred via the kitchens of the hotel where they were staying.
Read also :
Doping suspicions in Chinese swimming: Leon Marchand expresses his astonishment after cheating accusations
“Last year, I was checked 29 times and I never had a positive test. Between May and July, 21 times, and I never received a positive test. Today, I had two tests, we will see the result,” defended the 19-year-old Chinese after his supersonic victory.
Last week, the international federation World Aquatics indicated that the Chinese swimmers competing in Paris had been tested “on average 21 times each since January 1”, compared to six times for the Americans, five for the Italians, four for the Australians, British and French.
