Paris Olympics, Day 4 Semifinals: Pan Zhanle Bounces Back, Blasts Through to 100 Freestyle Final

Paris Olympics, Day 4 Semifinals: Pan Zhanle Bounces Back, Blasts Through to 100 Freestyle Final

In his first Olympic final, Pan Zhanle led off China’s 400 freestyle relay with a dramatic Olympic record, beating the time Caeleb Dressel swam on his way to gold in the event three years ago, and putting his team eight tenths clear of the field, although China could not hold on for a medal. But Pan’s fortunes quickly turned as he did not advance out of the 200 free prelims and then he barely snuck into the top-16 in the 100 free.

After the semifinal round, consider Pan back in pole position for gold as he claimed the top qualifying mark. Swimming in the second semifinal heat in lane eight, Pan overtook American Jack Alexy and held off charging Romanian David Popovici to reach the wall first in 47.21. Pan, who will not turn 20 until the last day of the Olympic swimming competition, owns the world record at 46.80, set at the World Championships earlier this year in Doha.

• World Record: Pan Zhanle, China – 46.80 (2024)
• Olympic Record: Pan Zhanle, China – 46.92 (2024)
• Tokyo Olympic Champion: Caeleb Dressel, USA – 47.02

In the first semifinal heat, four men came crashing into the wall at nearly the same time. French fans in the crowd were roaring for Maxime Grousset, the silver medalist in the 100 free at the 2022 World Championships and bronze medalist last year, but he ended up third among the bunch as Australia’s Kyle Chalmers and Hungary’s Nandor Nemeth rocketed into the wall ahead.

Chalmers, always a fast finisher, touched first in 47.58, which is ironically the exact same time he clocked on the way to gold at the 2016 Olympics. After finishing six hundredths behind Dressel in the final in Tokyo, Chalmers is aiming to join an elite club of multi-time 100 freestyle Olympic champions and become the first with non-consecutive titles. Previous multi-time winners include Duke Kahanamoku (1912 and 1920), Johnny Weissmuller (1924 and 1928), Alexander Popov (1992 and 1996) and Pieter van den Hoogenband (2000 and 2004).

After the second heat, Chalmers’ time stood up as second-best overall. Nemeth finished second in the heat in 47.61, followed by Grousset (47.63) and the United States’ Chris Guiliano (47.72). Nemeth (third), Grousset (fourth) and Guiliano (seventh) all advanced, while Popovici (fifth, 47.66), Alexy (sixth, 47.68) and Germany’s Joshua Salchow (47.94) all moved on with their performances in the second heat.

On the wrong side of the cutline was Italian veteran Alessandro Miressi, who ended up ninth despite clocking 47.95. Anyone going 48-low was also left out, including Brazil’s Gui Caribe (48.03), Canada’s Josh Liendo (48.06), Great Britain’s Matt Richards (48.09) and the Cayman Islands’ Jordan Crooks (48.11).