Yangcheng Evening News reporter Long Xi intern Li Lixing
On the fifth day of the Paris Olympic Games, the Chinese swimming team finally ushered in the first gold medal of this Olympic Games after winning two silver medals and two bronze medals. The La Défense Arena in Paris also set the first world record since the start of the Olympic swimming competition.
In the men's 100-meter freestyle final of the Paris Olympics in the early morning of August 1, Beijing time, Chinese athlete Pan Zhanle won the championship with a time of 46.40 seconds and broke his original world record of 46.80 seconds. Australia's Chalmers finished second in 47.48 seconds and Romania's Popovic finished third in 47.49 seconds. Ahead of the second place in the final of the Olympic Games, and breaking the world record by a large margin in a pool that is not conducive to good results, the gold medal of Pan Zhanle is needless to say.
The first person in 100 years
Back in 1896, when the first modern Olympic Games were held, the men's 100m freestyle was one of the gold medal events of the Olympic Games. Hojoš · Alfred from Hungary won the first gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle in the history of the modern Olympic Games with a time of 1:22.02. Since then, the men's 100m freestyle stage at the Olympics has been dominated by European and United States athletes for a long time, and only for a short time, with occasional Asians.
Until the 2015 Kazan World Swimming Championships, Chinese swimmer Ning Zetao reached the final of the event and won the championship with a time of 47.84 seconds, before which there was no precedent for Asian athletes to enter the top 8 in the men's 100m freestyle at the Olympics or the World Championships.
With Ning Zetao's retirement, Chinese athletes rarely made a breakthrough in the men's 100m freestyle until the 2022 World Championships, when Pan Zhanle swam 47.65 seconds, tying the national record held by Ning Zetao and only 0.09 seconds away from the Asian record. Poon soon broke the record and continued to break it until he reached the top of the Olympic podium on 1 August.
On this day, Pan Zhanle's performance was absolutely astonishing, 46.40 seconds - this result made everyone jaw-dropping. He not only created a Chinese miracle, but also a world miracle. This is the first Olympic champion in the men's sprint freestyle in the history of Chinese swimming, and the first Asian athlete in history to win the gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle final at the Olympic Games.
Twists and turns
Pan Zhanle's road to gold at the Paris Olympics was full of twists and turns. In the men's 4×100m freestyle relay on the first day of the competition, Pan Zhanle swam an Olympic record of 46.92 seconds in the first stroke, but the Chinese team only finished fourth. In the 100-meter freestyle preliminaries, Pan Zhanle played abnormally, swimming only 48.40 seconds, tied for 13th, and almost failed to enter the semifinals. In this regard, he explained: "I followed Australia's Chalmers in the preliminary round, I thought it should be almost the same to watch him swim, but it turned out that he was so slow that he almost took himself off, and in the preliminary round I have been praying that I will be given a chance, I must play well in the semi-finals and finals, and the result is thrilling." ”
With the lessons learned from the preliminaries, Pan Zhanle found his form in the semi-finals and entered the final with the first place in the semi-finals. But then in the men's 4×200m freestyle relay final, Pan Zhanle and his relay teammates won the fourth place. It can be said that all the unsmooth experiences made Pan Zhanle hold his breath in the men's 100-meter freestyle final.
At the start of the final, Poon took the lead, sprinting forward like a bullet out of his load, and by the last 15 meters, he was the absolute victor and proud of the pursuers behind him.
"Shame before the snow"
In an interview after the game, the first thing Pan Zhanle said was: "Shame on the snow!" ”
Pan Zhanle finally vented his emotions: "After we swam the 4×100m freestyle relay on the first day, I greeted Chalmers below, and he ignored me at all, including Alexei of the United States team, our coach was on the shore, and his roll splashed directly on the coach, and he looked down on us a little. Finally won all of them today, and broke the world record in such a difficult pool, which made a great start for the Chinese team. All I wanted was to rush in front, and the hard top in the back had to come back, and in the last 15 meters, I found that they were pulled away by me too much, and there was no way to catch up. ”
In the most difficult swimming pool, Pan Zhanle responded to everything with results.
"Never admit defeat"
Pan Zhanle was born on August 4, 2004 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, he has shown amazing swimming talent since he was a child, was selected into the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Team at the age of 14, and has since opened the road to fame, and has won the men's 1500-meter freestyle championship at the 2019 National Summer Swimming Championships, the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay championship at the 2021 National Games, the men's 100-meter freestyle gold medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, the men's 4×100-meter medley relay championship and breaking the Asian record; At the 2024 World Championships in Doha, he won the gold medal in the men's 4×100m freestyle relay, and Pan Zhanle swam 46.80 seconds on the first bat, setting a world record.
As early as 2022, Mark ·Schubert, the former head coach of the United States swimming team, once cooperated with the Chinese swimming team, and after watching Pan Zhanle swimming, Schubert said that he hoped that Pan Zhanle could switch to the 200-meter individual medley, and left an evaluation that "Chinese practice 100-meter freestyle has no future".
Pan Zhanle refused to transfer the item, and said: "I am a natural rebellious, the more others think I can't do it, the more I have to show him." ”
After meeting Schubert at the World Championships in Doha, he took out four gold medals to show off to him: "I specially pointed out to him which gold medal was the 100-meter freestyle, and then told him that I also broke the world record." ”
Pan Zhanle, who will turn 20 the day after tomorrow, will swim to his next world record with this meaningful gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Editor: Wu Fangzhou
Source: Golden Sheep Network