Kyle Chalmers, an Australian athlete, was caught up in a controversy during the Olympic Games after Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle set a new world record during the men’s 100m freestyle final.
Zhanle reportedly said that he was disrespected by other swimmers, including Chalmers.
The controversy erupted after Pan’s victory, which was overshadowed by a doping scandal involving several Chinese athletes.
Chalmers said it was strange to be accused of disrespecting Pan after the event in Paris, where the Chinese swimmer was part of a relay team. According to Pan, after they finished the race, he greeted Chalmers, but he completely ignored him.
During a training session, an individual splashed water on the coach, which Pan said seemed disrespectful. Despite this, he and his teammates were still able to set a world record in the event. The Paris pool, where the world record was broken, has been criticized for its slow pace.
Despite the controversy surrounding Pan’s achievement, the fact that 23 Chinese athletes were still allowed to participate in the Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance was still accepted by global anti-doping officials.
Chalmers has spoken about his rival and says that he trusts that Pan is doing well and that the Olympics is clean. He also claims that he doesn’t understand why Pan would make such a statement after they finished the first day of competition in Paris.
Chalmers said it felt strange to have a fist pump before the start of the relays, and he focused on his teammates. He also noted that they had a laugh together before the warm-up session, though there were no issues. However, there have been issues back in China, with Chalmers emerging as a public enemy of Pan.
Chalmers has been the target of online abuse from users of China’s Weibo platform, which has over 600 million users. The incident led to a video of the Chinese swimmer making a swipe at the Australian athlete going viral across China.
One of the most popular Weibo topics that discussed the incident was “Chalmers ignored Pan Zhanle’s greetings.” Many of the users who commented on the matter claimed that Western countries were losing their competitive edge due to how they would always baselessly attack others.
When I first thought about the swimmers from developed nations, I thought they were respectful. However, after Pan was not allowed to join the group of 23 swimmers who were allowed to participate in the Tokyo Olympics due to an anti-doping issue involving China, Chalmers was diplomatic when he was asked about Pan’s achievement.
Chalmers stated that he was focused on winning the race and that he believed that Pan deserved to win the gold medal. David Popovici of Romania, who took the bronze in the 100m freestyle event, also congratulated Pan.