Australian swimming coach Brett Hawke claims 100m freestyle gold medallist Pan Zhanle’s extraordinary world record effort at the Paris Olympics is ‘not humanly possible’, as the world reacts to the Chinese star’s remarkable swim.
Pan finished more than a second ahead of Australian star Kyle Chalmers to shatter his own previous world record with an astonishing time of 46.40 seconds, with Chalmers having to settle for silver.
However, Hawke, a former Australian Olympic swimmer turned well-known coach, believes the time is simply too good to be true.
“I’m just going to be honest – I am angry at that swim,” Hawke said in an Instagram post.
“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 and 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.
“I’m upset right now because you don’t win 100 freestyle by a body length on that field. You just don’t do it.
“It is not humanly possible to beat that field by a body length. I don’t care what you say.
“This is not a race thing, this is not against any one particular person or nation, this is just what I see and what I know.
“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.
“So don’t sell it to me, don’t shove it down my throat. It’s not real.”
Hawke hinted at, but did not mention, the elephant in the room: the drugs controversy that has surrounded China throughout these Games and for the past few years.
China’s team have been under increasing scrutiny since revelations 23 swimmers tested positive to a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics, but were allowed to compete at those Games.
Pan was not in that group, and said following his win the nation had ‘cleaned our past shame’.
Speaking to China’s CCTV following his gold medal swim, he went on to claim rival athletes, including Chalmers, had acted with hostility towards him and the Chinese swimming team.
“On Day 1 I tried to say hello to Kyle Chalmers and he ignored me,” Pan is alleged to have said.
“And the USA’s Jack Alexy splashed water on our coach. I felt they looked down on us.
“Can I say this on TV? I finally beat them all today!”
Chalmers, meanwhile, believes his Chinese conquerer is drug-free after Pan broke his own world record in the final.
“I do everything I possibly can to win the race and trust everyone’s doing the same as I am, staying true to the integrity of sport,” silver medallist Chalmers said.
“I trust that … he (Pan) deserves that gold medal.”
Chalmers shut down talk that he is retiring by saying he will continue his glittering career, after surging to silver with an epic final lap.
Chalmers was slow off the blocks and was last at the turn but flew home to reel in all but one of his competitors with Chinese star Pan touching the wall in an unprecedented time of 46.4, smashing his own world record.
The Aussie veteran clocked 47.48, just 0.01s ahead of Romania’s bronze medallist David Popovici.
Mollie O’Callaghan was the favourite in the 100m women’s final after beating Ariarne Titmus for the 200m gold but the 20-year-old finished fourth.
Shayna Jack placed was fifth with Swedish world record holder Sarah Sjorstrom winning in 52.16 seconds.
O’Callaghan says she has to “suck it up”.
“I expected a lot more,” she said.
“But at the end of the day you’ve got to suck it up and wait another four years.”
O’Callaghan was bidding to become just the third woman to complete a 100-200m freestyle golden double at the same Olympics.
“I knew it was going to be at tough race … if you stuff something up, it costs you.”
Jack, also a part of Australia’s triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay team on Saturday night, missed the Tokyo Games three years ago after serving a two-year doping ban.
“I wanted to walk out, soak up the crowd and enjoy my family being in the stands,” Jack said.
“I tried to reflect but absorb the fact I’m here as an Olympian. A couple of years ago I never thought that would be possible.”
Zac Stubblety-Cook also produced a strong finish in the 200m breaststroke final but was never going to catch French superstar Leon Marchand who sent the crowd into raptures by winning in an Olympic record.
Remarkably, hometown hero Marchand also won gold in the men’s 200m butterfly just hours earlier, completing one of the most remarkable Olympic doubles in many a year.
Stubblety-Cook clocked 2:06.79 while fellow Aussie Josh Yong finished eighth in lane eight.
In the 200m butterfly semis, Abbey Lee Connor and Liz Dekkers each finished third to make it through to the final.
Chalmers’ surprise news that he wants to swim onto the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 to compete as a 30-year-old ended talk that this would be his final individual swim at an Olympics.
“I did everything I possibly could, and I’m really proud of that performance,” he told Nine poolside.
“So to get silver at my third Olympic Games, to be on the podium three consecutive times is something I’m going to be very, very proud of and no one can ever take away from me.”
“This is not my last individual. I’m not retiring anytime soon. I love it. I think I’ll continue on as long as I possibly can, so… But this race does mean a lot to me.
“It is really special. I’m probably just lost the words. Having three guys having faster PBs than me and being able to stay in control and calm under the pressure and expectation is so much on me, I’m just really, really stoked with that. It’s amazing.”
Chalmers won gold in Rio eight years ago and silver at Tokyo in 2021 and has fought through plenty of adversity throughout his career.
“My first one, I was very young and naive and didn’t know what it meant to be an Olympian or to be an Olympic champion,” he said.
“And then I had to work so hard and go through so much to get to Tokyo, and to come away with silver there, that’s probably the highlight of my swimming career.
“To then back it up again this year, it’s so special to be an Olympian and be recognised as an Olympic champion.
“My biggest goal now is just inspiring the next generation of swimmers coming through, and I’m just a kid from a country town in South Australia.”
And American Katie Ledecky added to her legend with victory in the women’s 1500m freestyle – the seventh gold medal of her glittering Olympic career.
Australian Moesha Johnson was sixth in 16:02.70, finishing some 32.68 seconds behind Ledecky, who later in Paris will chase a fourth-successive 800m freestyle gold.
Dolphins Jenna Strauch and Ella Ramsey failed to progress to the women’s 200m breaststroke final.
with AAP
