Australian swimming coach claims Chinese Olympic star’s world record ‘not possible’

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A former Olympic swimmer from Australia who is now a swimming coach is doubting the authenticity of Chinese athlete Pan Zhanle's incredible world record swim at the recent Paris Olympics.

Pan easily beat a group of top swimmers, including popular Australian Kyle Chalmers, to win the 100m freestyle race and take home the highly sought-after gold medal.

By accomplishing this, the 19-year-old also set a new world record by almost half a second. This was the largest lead in the men's 100m freestyle event since Johnny Weissmuller, the American swimmer and actor famous for portraying Tarzan, did so in 1928.

Pan's victory marked the first instance of a swimming world record being broken at this event. Some have pointed to the pool's shallowness as the reason for the slower performances in swimming events, but Pan proved them wrong with an impressive performance.

This happened after the Chinese doping scandal, where it was discovered that the Chinese anti-doping officials ignored positive tests from their top swimmers, attributing it to tainted food at a hotel kitchen, and the World Anti-Doping Agency did not intervene.

Pan was not involved in the scandal, but that hasn't stopped swimming coach Brett Hawke - who is not currently part of the Australian Olympic team - from commenting on his performance.

"I am really frustrated about that swim," Hawke wrote on Instagram. "I'm feeling disappointed because it's not realistic to win the 100 freestyle by such a big margin. It's simply impossible to outperform the competition by that much. Regardless of what anyone says, I firmly believe that. This isn't about race or targeting any specific individual or country, it's just my personal observation and opinion."

"That's not possible, there's no way you can outpace that group. Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy, you can't defeat those guys by a whole body length in the 100 freestyle. It's not humanly achievable, so don't try to convince me, don't force it on me. It's not true."

Hawke also shared a message saying, "If something seems too good to be real, it likely isn't."

On the other hand, Chalmers, who came in second place, supported his competitor. "I give my all to try to win the race and believe that everyone else is doing the same, staying honest to the spirit of sports," Chalmers stated. "He has earned that gold medal."