Did Pan Zhanle win his gold medal because Kyle Chalmers and Jack Alexy disrespected him at the 2024 Paris Olympics?! Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Jack Alexy + Kyle Chalmers disrespected Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!
Right after he smashed the men’s 100m freestyle world record, Pan Zhanle told Chinese media outlet CCTV (China Central Television) that he was motivated to beat Chalmers and Alexy after they disrespected him:
On the first day, after the 4×100 free relay, I went to say hi to Kyle [Chalmers] and he ignored me
Including [Jack] Alexy from the American team – while we were training, [Jack] Alexy splashed our coaches on the side of the pool with water while he was doing a flip turn.
I felt that they looked down upon us, can I say this? And today I finally beat them all.
Pan Zhanle’s accusations triggered great indignation amongst Chinese netizens, and no amount of glee that the young Chinese star swimmer beat the two Westerners who disrespected him. That’s a great tale of sweet revenge for the people in China, but is there any actual evidence to back his claims?
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No evidence Jack Alexy / Kyle Chalmers disrespected Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!
Let’s dissect Pan Zhanle’s claims about Jack Alexy and Kyle Chalmers disrespecting him, and see where the facts stand…
Fact #1 : No one else saw Jack Alexy splash Chinese coaches
According to Pan Zhanle, Jack Alexy appeared to “deliberately” splash water on the Chinese coaches while he was doing a flip turn.
As anyone who has watched relay swimming can tell you – people standing next to the touchpad are likely to get splashed whenever a swimmer does a flip turn. But how does any swimmer “deliberately” target who they splash when they do the flip turn???
For his part, Jack Alexy was surprised by Pan’s allegations, and pointed out that doing turns was a normal part of training:
I can honestly tell you I don’t know when that happened. Doing turns is part of anyone’s work process. When I heard that, I was pretty surprised.
Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t. No one else could confirm or verify Pan’s account. Not even the Chinese coaches, who were allegedly splashed by Alexy, spoke up about the “grave insult” of being splashed while standing at the pool side.
Perhaps those Chinese coaches understood that getting splashed with water is, literally, an occupational “hazard” of all swimming coaches…
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Fact #2 : Kyle Chalmers congratulated Pan Zhanle earlier
It is more clear-cut when it comes to Kyle Chalmers though, because he actually had good memories of Pan before being accused of being disrespectful:
I find it a bit weird, I gave him a fist pump before the relays. And then my focus went to my teammates and my own racing. We had a laugh together at warm down last night, but no issues from my end.
But here’s the clincher. Just before Pan Zhanle made those claims in the CCTV interview, Kyle Chalmers actually congratulated him on winning the gold medal and beating him by a full second – okay, 1.08 seconds to be exact!
Does that look like Kyle Chalmers was disrespecting Pan Zhanle with that hand shake? More so when Chalmers actually spoke up two days earlier about how Pan idolised him:
Pan, the Chinese boy, straight before we walked out said: ‘You’re my idol and I love, love, love watching you”. So that was kind of crazy.
So Kyle Chambers not only acknowledged Pan Zhanle as a fan, he also congratulated Pan on his win, before being accused of being disrespectful.
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Fact #3 : Kyle Chalmers defended Pan Zhanle
On top of that, Kyle Chalmers defended Pan Zhanle, when he was asked whether he thought that the race was fair, in light of recent Chinese doping concerns.
… yeah, I trust that he’s doing everything he possibly can to be there, and [Pan] deserves that gold medal, and I did everything I possibly could to challenge for that gold medal and be on the top podium.
It would beggar belief that Kyle Chalmers would publicly defend Pan Zhanle against doping concerns if he really did not respect the Chinese star swimmer.
Fact #4 : Kyle Chalmers stayed in touch with Pan Zhanle
On Saturday, 3 August – two days after the race, Chalmers said that he had been keeping in touch with Pan Zhanle, and would would be visiting Pan in Shanghai later this year.
We’ve exchanged messages, which has been really nice. I’m supposed to be going to the world cup series and the first leg is in Shanghai. He’s looking forward to having me there and wanted to show me around, so that makes me a lot more excited about going.
He also explained again that he never disrespected the young Chinese swimmer, and could not understand what the drama was all about.
I don’t think there was any animosity. From my point of view, I spoke to him in the marshalling room before the race, after the race went straight over and shook his hand in the pool, on the podium shook his hand and then had a great conversation before we started our cool-down.
All of our conversations we’ve ever had has been positive, from world championships last year through to this year. From my point of view it’s fine. I can’t really comprehend why this is happening.
Regardless of what we may think of Pan’s accusations, Kyle Chalmers have so far, demonstrated great sportsmanship, and shown that he has been a complete gentleman about this whole drama.
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