‘He Deserves that Gold Medal’

Kyle Chalmers ‘Trusts’ Pan Zhanle World Record: ‘He Deserves that Gold Medal’

Questions around the Chinese swimming program rose in volume Wednesday night after Pan Zhanle annihilated the world record in the men’s 100 freestyle in the final of the Paris Olympics. To the people closest to that feat, though, the answers are clear.

Both silver medalist Kyle Chalmers and bronze-winner David Popovici responded to queries about the integrity of Pan’s gold-winning 46.40 by saying they believe the swim was done fairly.

“I do everything I possibly can to win the race,” Chalmers said. “And I trust that everyone’s doing the same as I am and staying true to sport and the integrity of sport. So yeah, I trust that he’s done everything he possibly can to be there, and he deserves that gold medal, and I did everything I possibly could to challenge for that gold medal and be on the top podium.”

“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” was Popovici’s response.

Pan, who turns 20 next week, set the world record in the 100 freestyle in 46.80 at the World Championships in Qatar in February, before news of positive Chinese tests from 2021 surfaced. He lopped four tenths off of that record Wednesday night in the Olympic final to win his first Olympic medal. It’s the largest drop in the world record of that event since Jonty Skinner in 1976 took the record from Jim Montgomery’s 49.99 to 49.44.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that 23 swimmers tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance trimetazidine at a training camp in early 2021. The swimmers were cleared by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) as a case of environmental contamination, and the World Anti-Doping Agency assented to that decision. World Aquatics did not appeal the decision the month before the Tokyo Olympics, and WADA has stood by its determination in an independent review of its case. Pan, per reports, was not among the swimmers that tested positive.

However, the positive tests have cast a pall over the Chinese team. After three golds and six total medals at the Tokyo Games, Pan’s was the first gold and fifth total medal of these Olympics.

Chalmers spoke highly of his interactions with Pan, both in Paris and at the World Championships last year in Fukuoka. He said he’s been tunnel-visioned on the Olympics and tried to stay off social media and from reading swimming-related news. The champion in this event in Rio in 2016 and silver medalist in Tokyo was thrilled at the color of his eighth Olympic medal.

That it’s Pan ahead of him has no bearing on any of that.

“Last year, I remember walking out before the final of the World Championships and he was maybe in a lane next to me or just before we got announced, actually came up to me and I didn’t know he spoke any English at that stage,” Chalmers said. “And he said, ‘Kyle, I have so much respect for you. You’re my idol, rah rah, which was really nice. And then again tonight after the race I congratulated him, and he said, ‘You are my idol.’

“So for me, I look at him the same as every competitor. I want to be the very, very best no matter what. I want to beat everyone no matter the question marks or eyebrows raised, and for me, I see him the same as everyone else. To swim 46.4 is amazing. It’s a time that I probably never dreamed of or saw as possible.”

Popovici offered “massive props” to Pan. He’s more optimistic than Chalmers about where the record can go, and he’s using Pan’s swim as fuel to get him there.

“This is only motivation,” he said. “We can’t be mad. We can only congratulate him. This is what sports is about.”

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