Tag Archives: Pan Zhanle

Chinese outrage + drama at 2024 Paris Olympics fact checked!

Should the Chinese be outraged at 2024 Paris Olympics?!

Many Chinese citizens and netizens worldwide are outraged at what they believe were genuine insults and examples of Sinophobia and blatant racism at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Chinese swimmers, in particular, were under heavy scrutiny and testing, which many Chinese netizens felt were excessive, while other people felt were justified. After all, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) before the Tokyo Olympics, and some of them later tested positive for clenbuterol.

In this article, we will go through the viral claims and videos, and find out if their outrage and constant drama at the 2024 Paris Olympics are warranted, or not.

Chinese outrage + drama at 2024 Paris Olympics fact checked!

Claim : Kyle Chalmers + Jack Alexey disrespected Pan Zhanle
Verdict : Unlikely

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:

Unfortunately, no one else could verify Pan’s claims. Not even the Chinese coaches spoke up about the “grave insult” of being splashed by Jack Alexy while standing at the pool side. There is also the inconvenient fact that people standing by the pool side, can and do, get splashed whenever a swimmer does a flip turn…

On top of that, Kyle Chalmers was seen congratulating Pan Zhanle for winning the gold medal, after beating him by a full second. Chalmers even defended Pan against doping concerns. You can read more about this drama in our earlier fact check article.

Claim : Western media tried to give Pan Zhanle drugged water
Verdict : False

Chinese netizens are sharing a Douyin video, or its screenshot, which claims that a “Western media person” tried to sabotage Pan Zhanle by offering him water containing drugs after he won the gold medal. That is a completely fabricated story.

If that actually happened, it would have been reported widely and investigated as a crime. It would also have been severely criticised by China, and the Chinese media outlets.

However, there has been no official complaint, and neither Pan Zhanle nor the Chinese Olympics contingent ever claimed that there was an attempt to sabotage his win by giving him water containing drugs. There was also no report of such a crime by the IOC, the French police, or the mainstream media.

You can read more about this ridiculous claim in our fact check article.

Claim : Leon Marchand refused to shake hands with Chinese coach
Verdict : Just a misunderstanding

This video has gone viral on social media, with many netizens (not just Chinese) criticising French swimmer Leon Marchand for refusing to shake the hand of Chinese swimming coach, Zhu Zhigen.

https://www.techarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Leon-Marchand-ignores-Chinese-coach-handshake-video.mp4?_=1

According to Beijing Youth Daily reporter, Song Xiang (source), Leon Marchand apologised to the Chinese swimming team. He explained that he wasn’t fully paying attention, and thought that Coach Zhu Zhigen was just helping him with the rope. He didn’t realise that the coach was offering a handshake, as he was bending down to slip under the retractable stanchion.

According to Chinese journalist Li Jingling (archive), Leon Marchand apologised twice to the Chinese swimming team, and personally apologised to Zhu Zhigen, saying that he didn’t mean to neglect the coach. Both men hugged and exchanged gifts. So it appears that, while Leon Marchand did indeed ignore the Chinese coach’s handshake as seen in the viral video, it was just a misunderstanding.

Claim : British women divers refused to acknowledge Chinese rivals
Verdict : False

This video clip has gone viral on Chinese social media, and in certain Chinese diaspora groups, claiming to show how British women divers discriminate against their Chinese rivals, by ignoring them and hugging the North Korean women instead.

https://www.techarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/British-divers-refused-to-hug-Chinese-divers-video.mp4?_=2

The truth is the Chinese and British divers had already finished their dives earlier, and were waiting for the North Korean women to finish theirs. Any congratulations (or hugs) between the British and Chinese women would have happened before the North Korean women dived.

After the North Korean women finished their dives, the results were announced – they won the silver medal – their country’s first diving medal ever. That was why the British women went over to hug them. It was a historic moment.

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate the full, unedited video, so I cannot “prove” that the British women divers did not “diss” the Chinese women divers. However, I can prove that there is no animosity between the British and Chinese women divers. In fact, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Quan Hongchan have a history of hugging each other!

It appears that, being petite, Quan Hongchan enjoys hugging and being carried like that. That could explain why she had her partner, Chen Yuxi, hug her the same way in that viral video. In fact, Chen Yuxi actually continued hugging her and carrying her out of the pool area!

You can read more about this ridiculous claim in our fact check article.

Claim : Western reporter intentionally knocked into Chinese athlete
Verdict : False

This video has also gone viral, with people claiming that it shows a Western reporter intentionally bumping Chinese table tennis champion Wang Chuqin in a racist attack.

The foreign reporter deliberately bumped into our athletes. Look at the reporter’s face. He deliberately bumped into Wang Chuqin. Do you know how difficult it is for our athletes now? This is the racism in the bones of Westerners.

https://www.techarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Western-reporter-knocking-into-Chinese-athlete-video-small.mp4?_=3

The woman was not a reporter. She was a Swedish photographer, which can be confirmed by her grey vest that says “PHOTO 1717”. She can also be seen lugging two large and heavy cameras – one with a long monopod attached, and the other held up to her face.

Two different videos with alternate angles show that the female photographer was swerving to avoid two men coming from the front. They also show that she was looking through the viewfinder of her camera, which was pointed to the left, when she bumped into Chinese table tennis star, Wang Chuqin.

The videos also showed that the photographer was startled when she bumped into Wang Chuqin, and quickly said “Oh, sorry” before swerving away and continuing on her way. Clearly, it was all just an accident, and it was not a racist attack on a Chinese athlete by a Western reporter.

You can read more about this ridiculous claim in our fact check article.

I will keep adding more cases as they appear. For certain, there will be more to come, as it looks like the 2024 Paris Olympics is turning into a circus of drama surrounding Chinese athletes!

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Did Alexy + Chalmers disrespect Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics?!

Claim : Jack Alexy + Kyle Chalmers disrespected Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!

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?

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…

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.

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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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did Western media try to drug Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics?!

Claim : Western media tried to drug Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!

This message has gone viral on WhatsApp and Douyin, claiming that the Western media tried to drug Chinese star swimmer Pan Zhanle after he won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics!

Shameless Angmoh! / circulating on WhatsApp :

Despicable and shameless Western media! PUI!!!

Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle won the gold medal in the men’s 100m freestyle yesterday with a world record-breaking 46.40 seconds, beating his Western opponents. Just after the game, a Western media person enthusiastically offered Pan Zhanle water to drink; fortunately, Pan Zhanle’s coach found it and stopped him in time. Later, the Chinese team detected doping in the water!

What does this mean? This means that if Pan Zhanle accidentally drank the water handed over by the Western media, and was summoned for a urine test later, he would definitely be found to contain doping in his urine! That means Pan Zhanle has no excuses, not only will his gold medal in the final be revoked, he will even face the misfortune of being banned by the International Swimming Federation for a long time!

Think about it, Western media, athletes and those evil leaders, in order to stop China’s progress, are simply unscrupulous to the point of being outrageous! Hateful! Shameful! Hateful!

宥西方媒体热情拿水给潘展乐喝
被潘展乐教练发现后及时阻止
后来在水中检测出兴奋齐这
种卑鄙手段也只有美
硒方国家能做得出来

Translation : Western media enthusiastically offered water to Pan Zhanle to drink. Pan Zhanle’s coach found out and stopped him in time. Later, excitement was detected in the water. Only the United States and other countries can do such despicable means.

Truth : Western media did not try to drug Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!

This is yet another example of fake news circulating on WhatsApp, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : No one tried to drug Pan Zhanle at 2024 Olympics!

Let me just start by quickly pointing out that no one tried to sabotage Pan Zhanle with a glass or bottle of water containing drugs.

If that actually occurred, it would have been a major scandal. The Chinese contingent and the IOC would have lodged a police report, and launched a major investigation into who did it and why. There would have been extensive coverage all over the world, and in particular, by the Chinese media.

Even Pan Zhanle, who isn’t shy about throwing about controversial claims, never said he was almost drugged by anyone. Neither did the Chinese Olympics team, who would have been furious about such an attempt.

Yet, there has been no coverage by any reputable media outlet, not even in China. Heck, there hasn’t even been any outrage amongst Chinese netizens over this terrible crime. That’s because it never happened. The story was completely fabricated!

Fact #2 : There was no evidence of any attempt to drug Pan Zhanle

The entire event was not only recorded and streamed on live TV, there were thousands of people watching Pan Zhanle win his gold medal, and then receive it on the podium with Kyle Chalmers of Australia and David Popovici of Romania.

If someone actually tried to drug him right after he won his gold medal, it would have been recorded by the many cameras at the Paris La Defense Arena, or witnessed by the Chinese and Olympic officials there. Yet, there is no photo of the Western media member who offered Pan Zhanle the drugged water?

What about the drugged water that Pan Zhanle almost consumed? If it existed, it would have been tested, and the Chinese contingent and IOC made aware of its contents. Yet, there is not even a photo of that glass or bottle of water, never mind an actual test report of its contents!

Fact #3 : Pan Zhanle was tested extensively

The Chinese swimming contingent has come under additional scrutiny at the 2024 Paris Olympics, due to the 2021 doping scandal in which 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) before the Tokyo Olympics.

While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accept the Chinese explanation that the swimmers ate contaminated food at their hotel, it raised questions of its impartiality and whether Chinese swimmers were competing fairly.

As such, Chinese swimmers like Pan Zhanle were subjected to more stringent testing in Paris. Pan Zhanle pointed out that he took 21 doping tests from May to July, before the Paris Olympics.

I cooperated with all the testing procedures and stayed confident that I am competing fair and clean.

Unlike other Chinese swimmers, he didn’t gripe about the additional tests, saying that he didn’t feel that “there was any difference or influence (on his performance)”.

In other words, it would be quite impossible for Pan Zhanle to suddenly test positive for drugs right after winning his gold medal. It would have been picked up days, weeks, and months earlier.

I should also point out that Pan Zhanle was not part of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) in 2021, before the Tokyo Olympics.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

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