A hard-fought world record, and yet so many questions! On July 31, Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle took 46.40 seconds to better off all his opponents in the men’s 100m free final at the Paris Olympics. The leaderboard displayed his timing as the new world record and the ultimate decimating agent of names like Kyle Chalmers and David Popovici at the pool. But his night full of fascinating achievements has come under the shadow of doping allegations. 

Pan Zhanle remained stunningly ahead of his rivals, who were either past world champions or Olympic medalists. In fact, Zhanle’s timing stood 1.08 seconds ahead of Kyle Chalmers’, who held 9 Olympic medals before coming to this final tonight. This led to several swimming fans speculating something fishy was going on in the pool. This brought attention to the doping allegations that gripped the Chinese swimming for the past several months.

In April this year, the renowned media outlets, New York Times and ARD (Germany) published data that showed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for consuming the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in the initial months of 2021, the same year, the Tokyo Olympics took place, with many of these swimmers competing. However, there were no accusations of doping, as the report never left the offices of the Chinese doping control agency, CHINADA, or the global watchdog, WADA.

CHINADA carried out its investigation and informed WADA that the positive test result was due to food contamination at the team hotel. WADA accepted the findings and none of the swimmers were sanctioned. Several of those athletes later earned top podium finishes at the Tokyo Olympics.

But after Pan Zhanle’s win, the doping accusations have resurfaced and the swimmer might not feel comfortable in this situation. Despite the presence of big names on the list, Pan Zhanle was not implicated. This year, Pan broke the 100m freestyle world record at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, only to surpass it again today. But, the repeated doping controversies have led fans to question the cleanliness of his record.

Amidst, these allegations, Zanhle remains defiant and addressed the doping allegations around him following the win. Speaking to reporters through a translator, he said, “Last year I received 29 tests and never had a positive,” he told reporters through a translator. From May to July, I had 21 tests, no positive. Today we received a second test already. I don’t think there has been any impact (on me) because all the testing has been done in the normal procedure … So it’s not a big issue.”

However, this didn’t stop the fans and many others from questioning his stunning accomplishment.

Fans claim Pan Zhanle is not “clean” in his swimming 

Pan Zhanle shaved off 0.40 seconds from his previous world record timing in the 100m free event. Despite this feat, there was a cold atmosphere in the stands as Zhanle took the podium. This feeling reverberated on social media with one fan bluntly commenting “Drug test Pan Zhale right now,” under World Aquatics’ X post.

In the New York Times report from April, it was stated that those Chinese athletes who tested positive for the banned substance were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete. This was after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping charges and WADA chose not to intervene.

Several of those athletes went on to win medals in Tokyo including Zhang Yufei, who took a silver in the women’s 100m butterfly and gold in the 200m event. Other notable names on that list included Wang Shun, Qin Haiyang, Yang Junxuan, Yan Zibei, Wang Jianjiahe, and Sun Jiajun among others.

One swimming fan acknowledged Zhanle’s remarkable effort but remarked, “whatevs. he’s not clean. an impressive swim tho. we can give his gold medal and WR an *”.

11 of the 23 swimmers accused of doping are also in Paris including Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun. In fact, Yufei has already won the bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly.

On July 30, The New York Times published another report claiming two Chinese swimmers had a positive doping result in 2022. But just like in 2021, CHINADA allegedly played a part and allowed those swimmers to carry on. In their report, NYT cited Tang Muhan as one of the swimmers who tested positive for methandienone, a substance used to build lean muscle. Muhan is part of China’s relay team in Paris, though she wasn’t among the 23 swimmers who tested positive for TMZ in 2021. The second name is He Junyi, present in the earlier list as well, but she isn’t part of China’s swimming team in 2024.

Noticing the trend, one fan pointed out, “over or under 6 months until chinese doping scandal hits the ioc”. That allegation also gave a place for the fans to attack Pan Zhanle on the issue again.

Not only fans, but the Australian swimming coach Brett Hawke also stated that Zhanle’s feat was “not humanly possible”.  took to his Instagram raising concerns over the much-hyped win of Zhanle.  He wrote, “That swim was not real life. Not in that pool, not against that field.”  A fan penned a similar emotion writing, “In that wave pool???”.

But why the question over the pool? The Paris pool is shallow with a depth of only 2.15 meters, it falls well short of the 3.0 meters recommended by World Aquatics. A deeper pool ensures the downward force exerted by the swimmers on the water doesn’t bounce off the bottom of the pool and come to the surface to create chop water. But that’s not the case in Paris and as a result, no world records fell, until Pan Zhanle stunned everyone.

His rivals on the day also shared their opinion on the accusations of doping surrounding Zhanle. Australian Kyle Chalmers described his Chinese rival’s winning time as “crazy,” he said, “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.”

Meanwhile, Romanian swimmer David Popovici simply stated, “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. That’s all I have to say,”

In light of the recent New York Times report, the doping clouds hover over China’s swimming accomplishments in Paris. But as of now, Pan Zhanle has emerged clean with none of the reports mentioning his name. Safe to say, for the time being, his record will be intact and will take some effort to be broken.