China's Pan Zhanle poses for a photo during the medal ceremony for the swimming men's 100m freestyle final at the Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday. (Photo by Wei Xiaohao/China Daily)
China's freestyle swimmer Pan Zhanle has thanked a scientific training program for his world record-breaking feat at the Paris Olympics as the country celebrates its first men's Olympic swimming gold medal in a sprint event.
Entering Wednesday's final session under huge pressure to end China's gold medal drought in the Paris pool, the 19-year-old sent the capacity crowd at the La Defense Arena into a frenzy by clocking 46.40 seconds in the 100m freestyle final, to deliver the team a long-anticipated gold and take an incredible 0.4 seconds off his own previous world record time.
It was the first world record broken in any swimming competition at the Paris Games, and has significantly lifted the Chinese team's spirit following a series of near-misses of the podium top spot in earlier events.
Pan's record-breaking performance on Wednesday came after having completed a rigorous doping test program, prior to and during the Paris Games, with zero positive results, which has sent out a strong statement on the improvement and integrity of Chinese swimmers.
"I just swam the race perfectly today and made a strong impression for Chinese swimming. I hope this gold could boost the morale of the whole team," Pan said at the post-final news conference.
"For myself, I haven't come to terms with it yet," Pan said of the gold medal's significance for his career. "My life goes on, for sure, and I will continue training and swimming.
"But for Chinese swimming and for my country, I think it's huge to prove that Chinese athletes could also prevail in another event (other than traditional strong disciplines) in swimming."
A young talent specifically strong in his final split push, Pan made his presence felt at February's world championships in Doha by setting his previous world record of 46.80 seconds in his stunning leadoff leg in China's gold-winning men's 4x100m relay.
Australia's Kyle Chalmers finished 1.08 seconds behind Pan in Paris to win silver, while former world record holder David Popovici of Romania finished a further 0.01 seconds back and had to settle for a bronze medal.
Asked how he managed to achieve such a consistent improvement, Pan said it is all about hard working honestly under the right guidance.
"I took 21 doping tests from May to July prior to the Games and had no positive results at all. It was no big deal as long as the testing was conducted fairly and according to rules. I cooperated with all the testing and stay confident that I am competing fair and clean," Pan said.
"As far as my daily training routine, I didn't focus too much on speed training on my program. I did a lot of aerobics and endurance training to strengthen my push and kick in the final split.
"We have also been adopting a scientific underwater monitoring and analyzing system to review our techniques and strokes, so that we could train better and more effectively," he said.
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