American legend Phelps will not ‘point finger’ at China Olympic hero Pan Zhanle in Paris
- Swimming star hails 100m sprint champion Noah Lyles for revealing mental health struggle, ‘he was vulnerable at his happiest moment’
American swimming legend Michael Phelps said it would be wrong to “point the finger” at Pan Zhanle following the Chinese teenager’s devastating Olympic gold medal swim last week.
Pan smashed his own world record to win 100 metres freestyle gold in Paris, but immediately found himself under fire from critics questioning the legitimacy of the 19-year-old’s 46.40 seconds effort.
Phelps was one of those who appeared to cast doubt on Pan when he said he “couldn’t understand” how the teenager sliced 0.4 seconds off his own previous world best of 46.80.
Pan was not among the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine before the Tokyo Olympics. Those test results were hushed up, freeing the swimmers to compete in Japan.
Talking on Monday, Phelps said accusing Pan of wrongdoing would be no different from querying his own exploits during a career that yielded 23 Olympic golds and a host of world records.
“It would be the same thing if I were four minutes, three seconds [his then world record 400m individual medley time from the 2008 Beijing Olympics] and you guys said I was cheating,” Phelps said.
“[Pan’s swim] was an unbelievable time that somebody did and until we know the facts, you can’t point fingers.
