Pan Zhanle did something incredible on Wednesday during the men’s 100-meter freestyle swim. The 19-year-old didn’t just break the world record, he smashed it by 0.4 seconds and won by a full body length. However, this amazing feat has stirred up a lot of controversy.
Kyle Chalmers from Australia and David Popovici from Romania finished second and third. Right after the race, Chalmers looked at Popovici and seemed to say “doping,” suggesting that Pan might have used performance-enhancing drugs.
Pan claimed he was treated coldly by Chalmers when he tried to greet him at the start of the games. He also mentioned that Jack Alexy from the USA splashed water on his coach. Pan felt they were looking down on him. After winning, Pan said on TV, “We cleaned our past shame. I finally beat them all today!”
China’s swimming team has a history of doping allegations. From 1990 to 1998, 28 Chinese swimmers tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. In 2021, 23 swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication, and 13 of them still competed in the Tokyo Olympics. This has raised questions about the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its ability to regulate Chinese athletes.
Michael Phelps, a famous swimmer, spoke to Congress in June 2024 about these concerns, saying WADA still has major problems that affect the integrity of international sports.
There is no evidence that Pan Zhanle has used performance-enhancing drugs. However, his record-breaking swim has raised a lot of questions.
Understanding why Pan’s achievement is so incredible requires knowing about the men’s 100-meter freestyle. It’s a race that demands a perfect mix of speed, stamina, and technique. The event became really popular in 1922 when Johnny Weissmuller from the USA became the first person to swim it in under one minute.
Since then, the record has slowly improved, but by very small margins. In 1976, Jim Montgomery broke the 50-second barrier. In the 1980s, the record only dropped by 1.57 seconds over a decade. By the 2000 Olympics, the record was under 48 seconds, but advances in swimsuit technology led to many records being broken, which caused these suits to be banned.
From 2000 to 2024, the record only improved by 0.98 seconds, showing how hard it is to get faster in this event.
Pan Zhanle started as a 1500-meter swimmer and gradually focused on shorter distances. In 2021, he made his international debut and by 2022, he was already setting impressive times. In February 2024, Pan broke the world record with a time of 46.80 seconds, which wasn’t controversial.
But what Pan did in Paris was astonishing. The pool there is considered slow because it’s not deep enough to prevent water from rebounding and creating waves. This has made it difficult for swimmers to achieve their best times. Yet, Pan broke his own world record by 0.4 seconds, a huge margin, especially in a “slow” pool.
Other top swimmers in Paris couldn’t come close to their personal bests because of the pool conditions. Pan’s performance stands out as an outlier, and it’s puzzling how he managed such a feat.
This doesn’t mean Pan cheated. He passed all pre-Olympics drug tests, and results from the post-race tests are still pending. But his swim was unusually fast compared to everyone else’s, making it a mystery how he achieved it.
