China’s Pan Zhanle, almost unknown until last February, dove into the slowest Olympic pool of the century and beat his seven opponents, defeated the physics of fluids, and advanced a couple of decades in the history of swimming by himself, shattering the world record for the 100-meter freestyle, the golden distance, at 46.40 seconds. He advanced practically alone, something never seen before in a competition that by its nature tilts the definitions towards an increasingly accentuated equality. His mark improved by 40 hundredths of a second – a gap that in normal circumstances would take many years to overcome, tenth by tenth – the one he himself had established at the Doha World Championships, of 46.80 seconds.
The crowd, which had been cheering for Marchand’s two golds, was left speechless. The silence was broken only by shouts and whistles as Pan Zhanle swept the field by a metre. He was followed by some of the best freestyle swimmers ever. Australian Kyle Chalmers ran 47.48 seconds for silver, and Romanian David Popovici, the world record holder in the 100m freestyle until this amazing swimmer came along, took bronze in 47.49 seconds.
Pan Zhanle, just 19, was never named on the list of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in early 2023, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. But waves of up to five tests a day have not stopped since the Chinese team set up shop in France. Asian swimmers have complained of what they describe as harassment, with WADA officials breaking into their hotels before dawn, during siesta time and in the middle of the night to take blood and urine samples without warning and without allowing them to sleep.
Pan Zhanle vindicated his countrymen and restored the honour of the organisers of the Games, who defended the quality of the La Défense pool despite its depth of 2.2 metres, above the minimum 2.5 metres required by the revised regulations of the international federation. He did so with an astonishing performance. Too astonishing, perhaps.
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