Australian Olympian and current swimming coach Brett Hawke questioned the incredible world record set by Pan Zhanle in the 100 metres freestyle at the Paris Olympics following doping allegations against Chinese swimmers. But Australian Kyle Chalmers, who won silver in the event, felt the Chinese star was deserving of the victory.
Pan, a teenager, won the gold medal at the Olympics with a time of 46.40 seconds, smashing his previous best time of 46.80 seconds achieved in February. However, Pan had barely made it to the semi-finals with a time of 48.40, two seconds slower than his best.
Hawke, who coached Cesar Cielo of Brazil, the first person to break the 47-second mark, asserted that the world record time was possible. He admitted: “Listen, I’m just going to be honest. I am angry at that swim, I’m angry for a number of reasons… My friends are the fastest swimmers in history — from Rowdy Gaines to Alex Popov to Gary Hall Jr, Anthony Irvin, all the way up to King Kyle Chalmers…I know these people intimately, I’ve studied them for 30 years. I’ve studied this sport. I’ve studied speed. I understand it. I’m an expert in it, that’s what I do, okay.”
“That’s not real, you don’t beat that field — Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy — you don’t beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle. That’s not humanly possible, okay,” he added.
In relation to doping allegations
The victory occurred in the midst of a drug scandal that shattered the Chinese swim team just before the Paris Olympics and prompted US officials to charge WADA, the anti-doping organization, with staging a cover-up.
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested positive for the drug trimetazidine (TMZ) at a local competition in late 2020 and early 2021, just before the Tokyo Olympics, according to a story published in the New York Times in April. WADA accepted the explanation provided by Chinese officials, stating that food contamination was the cause of the positive tests.
However, Pan was not among the 23 swimmers in the report.
Pan declared: “Last year I received 29 tests, and it has never been positive… I was tested after the race and we will see the result.”
Source: Malay Mail