Pan Zhanle: rivals ‘didn’t care’ about Olympic medals, but had ‘breakdown’ over China golds
The 20-year-old made history in the Paris pool by winning two golds and a silver, and breaking his own world record
Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle said foreign athletes at the Paris Olympics “acted like they didn’t care about medals” but had a “breakdown” when they saw Chinese rivals atop the podium.
Pan, the world record holder and Olympic champion in the men’s 100 metres freestyle, said he had to use his win to make people recognise that any athlete could win fairly and cleanly.
The 20-year-old made history in the French capital with his exploits in the pool, but the Chinese team arrived on the back of revelations that 11 of them had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs before Tokyo 2021.
“You must broadcast this bit. [Some foreign athletes] themselves said they didn’t care about medals,” Pan said. “But when we [Chinese swimmers] won medals they all had a breakdown.”
There were several complaints the Paris pool was slow in comparison to previous Olympic Games with only four world records set, in comparison with the six and eight at the Tokyo and Rio Games, respectively.
