Chinese swimming world record ‘not humanly possible’ says Australian coach

Yahoo! ^ | August 01, 2024 | Staff

[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....

[dennisw]

Climbing Mt Everest and breaking the 4-minute mile were huge achievements in the 1950s. Now they are commonplace. People are made up the same as back then.

“Rarity: While over 4,000 people have climbed Everest, fewer than 200 have done so without supplemental oxygen. This underscores how difficult and uncommon the achievement is.”