Zhanle Pan made history by becoming the first Chinese swimmer to win the Olympic 100-meter freestyle, arguably the most iconic event in swimming, after winning the final of the Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old Pan enhanced his triumph by setting a world record with a time of 46.40 seconds, which was 40 hundredths less than the universal record he set in February at the Doha World Championships with a time of 46.80. A sensational bite left, without any option of fighting for victory, two rivals of the stature of the Australian Kyle Chalmers, who won gold at the Rio 2016 Games and silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and the Romanian David Popovici, a former world record holder.
As reflected by the more than a second difference in the two-pitch race, Zhanle Pan overtook the Australian and Romanian when he touched the finishing wall.
The Chinese swimmer wanted to show off who is the ‘king’ of speed at the moment with an explosive start that allowed him to lead by 33 hundredths of a second over his closest rival, the Frenchman Maxime Grousset, after passing through the first 50 meters.
But if Pan swam like lightning in the first length, in the second he flew, as confirmed by the spectacular 24.12 seconds in which he completed the second fifty meters, which allowed the Chinese to set a spectacular new world record with a time of 46.40 seconds. One second less than the Australian Kyle Chalmers, who won silver with a time of 47.48, and the Romanian David Popovici, who won gold in the 200m freestyle at these Paris Games, took bronze with a time of 47.49 seconds.
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