Posted on 08/02/2024 5:16:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
A leading Australian swimming coach has led criticism of Pan Zhanle’s stunning 100m freestyle world record after saying the Chinese swimmer’s performance in the pool was “not humanly possible”.
Brett Hawke led the international disbelief among some quarters after the 19-year-old stormed to gold in 46.40 seconds to beat nearest rival Kyle Chalmers by more than a second.
Pan destroyed a high-class field to shave almost half a
second off his own world record in the biggest winning margin in the men’s 100m freestyle since American Johnny Weissmuller in 1928, but his performance has been overshadowed by ongoing suspicions surrounding the Chinese team.
The 19-year-old said that he was not concerned by the doping row that has engulfed China’s swimming team at the Paris Games, despite being named in an investigation by The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD.
It reported that 23 athletes at Tokyo 2020 failed drugs tests for a banned heart medication, 11 of whom are competing in the Olympics, and a further two athletes were cleared after testing positive for a strong anabolic steroid in 2022 that was blamed on contaminated meat.
But in an animated video posted on his Instagram account, Hawke described it as a performance that “is not real” and said he had never encountered anything like it in three decades coaching in the sport.
“Listen, I’m just going to be honest, I am angry at that swim,” said Hawke, who did not specifically address recent allegations of Chinese doping cover-ups that have included multiple swimmers but not Pan himself.
“Look, I’m angry for a number of reasons. Look, my friends are the fastest swimmers in history, from Rowdy Gaines to Alex Popov to Gary Hall Jr, Anthony Ervin and all the way up to King Kyle Chalmers....
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
And for reasons like this, I consider it a virtue to pay little attention to Olympic swimmers. It looks like determining a winner actually comes down only to those who can cheat the best. This is Not in the Olympic tradition. Enough of this kind of playing the games will probably result in a loss of recognition & eventually no one will pay any attention.
sportsmanship no longer exists.
Agreed. It happens.
The athletes have learned from politicians all over the world.
Lying and cheating works—and most of the time they do not get caught.
Wow, the guy must be an alien then...
Check for gills under fake skin.
Maybe the winner sprayed his body with the same coating our vegetables get that seals all pores, and reduces friction of the water against the swimmers’s skin ... ?
It is cultural, just like for democraps to cheat.
Until proven otherwise, The Chinese swimmer is the new record holder, fair and square. Show me the cheat, and I’ll adjust my attitude.
Exactly like a certain US President...
The kid just swam his ass off. That's how records are broken and new ones set.......Congratulations to him.
It may be doping.
However, a friend of mine who was deeply involved in hot rod/car racing at national championships told me something that surprised me. He said “We could have set the record any time we wanted to be we didn’t because we wanted to save some back for the championships.” In other words, they were sandbagging. I wonder if some of that isn’t going on here?
Everything was humanly impossible until it wasn’t. They believed the 4 minute mile would kill someone trying to do it, all the way up until somebody did it and didn’t.
What’s extra funny is that 2 days ago people were whining that it was a “slow pool” because the times were so slow. So much for that.
Sandbagging or eye on the prize. Holding records is nice, but you’re still in competition to win. I don’t think we ever really found out how fast Usain Bolt could go. He just went out and won, and yeah set the record a couple of times, but that always seemed to be more about him having to go that fast to win. He never seemed like he was really pushing to his outside capability.
Maybe he practiced swimming in a pool of molasses..............
“...100m freestyle world record...in 46.40 seconds...”
Sh!t, I’m grateful I don’t sink.
they made fentanyl 50+ x more potent than morphine and a new 1 50x more powerful why not a new amphetamine
The Australian’s could win if they had a crocodile closing on them from behind...
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