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Interface News Reporter | Shi Yiying

Interface News Editor | Ren Xuesong

In the early morning of August 5, 2024, it was the last day of swimming competition at the Paris Olympic Games: in the men's 4x100m medley relay event, which had been monopolized by the US team for 40 years and ten Olympic Games, the Chinese team composed of Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun and Pan Zhanle secured the most important relay gold medal.

Previously, the first choice for the Chinese team in butterfly stroke was Wang Changhao, but after arriving in Paris, he was unwell, and Sun Jiajun, born in 2000, took his place temporarily. In this final, the Chinese team's first two legs Xu Jiayu and Qin Haiyang established a certain advantage in backstroke and breaststroke, and Sun Jiajun was not left behind in the third leg butterfly stroke. In the end, Pan Zhanle completed the pursuit, overtaking and gap in the last leg freestyle like a flying fish.

In just 100 meters of freestyle, Pan Zhanle caught up with his opponent, overtook him, and finally reached the edge with a half-body advantage. His single baton time was 45.92 seconds, fulfilling his 20th birthday wish - "I want to be able to run under 46 seconds in the final 4x100m relay."

When he made this birthday wish, there was about a month left before the Olympics. At that time, Pan Zhanle was not sure about his performance in his first Olympics. At that time, Pan Zhanle said: "Because it is my first Olympics, the pressure is great and I am nervous. In addition, my skills are not so perfect. There is a gap between the details and abilities. I need to prepare. I just want to finish the competition happily. If I can't get (a gold medal), I will go to the next one."

A few days ago, Pan Zhanle, who won the first gold medal for the Chinese swimming team in this Olympics, won the gold medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle with a time of 46.40 seconds in the "100-meter flying fish" battle in the pool, and broke the world record.

Pan Zhanle was born in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province on August 4, 2004. At the age of 20, he was 1.9 meters tall. Pan Zhanle seemed to be born for swimming. With the beautiful muscles brought by swimming training, it is true that "the male god comes from the swimming pool".

Xu Jiayu, who swam the first leg of the backstroke in the final, is also from Zhejiang. In this Olympics, Xu Jiayu once again finished second in his main event, the men's 100-meter backstroke, and won another silver medal. At the same time, Xu Jiayu, who was born on August 19, 1995, is also an indispensable backstroke candidate for the Chinese swimming team in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay and 4x100-meter mixed team relay. Xu Jiayu is also from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.

Xu Jiayu, who finally realized his long-cherished dream of becoming an "Olympic champion," made it clear after the game that "see you next time."

On the last day of the swimming competition, Wang Shun, the only male Olympic champion of the Chinese swimming team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was also watching the competition of his younger brothers in the stands. Born on February 11, 1994, Wang Shun is already a veteran. Looking at the excellent performance of Pan Zhanle and others, Wang Shun said sincerely, "It's amazing, I'm proud!"

The first "explosive moment" of Pan Zhanle in this Olympics appeared in Wang Shun's vlog. The two seemed very intimate when they arrived in Paris and settled in the Olympic Village. Pan Zhanle leaned on Wang Shun's shoulder, and the two laughed and joked about Wang Shun's "suitors, lining up all the way to France"...

Wang Shun also helped Pan Zhanle grow up during his career. Pan Zhanle said that he only watched two Olympic live broadcasts, "one was the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics, and the other was the 200m individual medley (200m individual medley) at the Tokyo Olympics, where Wang Shun won the championship." At that time, Pan Zhanle, who had not yet started his first Olympic journey, did not hide his ambition to "win the Olympic championship" like Wang Shun.

Pan Zhanle’s growth is inseparable from the leadership of Wang Shun and other big brothers in the team, and the success of Pan Zhanle and Wang Shun is also inseparable from the attention and support of the Zhejiang Provincial Team and even the entire “free shipping zone” for the swimming project.

Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai are the "free shipping areas" that have always been strong in swimming. This strength has been evident since the Chinese sports delegation first participated in the Olympics in the last century.1989It has continued from the 1980s to the present day.

The "Five Golden Flowers" who won four gold medals and five silver medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics were born around 1970. Among them, Lin Li and Wang Xiaohong were from Jiangsu, Zhuang Yong and Yang Wenyi were from Shanghai. Then came the famous Shanghai swimmers Le Jingyi and Jiang Chengji, who were born in 1975. Later, Luo Xuejuan, the gold medalist in the women's 100-meter breaststroke at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was from the Zhejiang team. Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, who shone in the pool at the 2012 London Olympics, were both members of the Zhejiang team. Among this group of athletes born around 1995, Wang Shun and Xu Jiayu were from Zhejiang, and Zhang Yufei was from Jiangsu.

Born in Changde City, Hunan Province, Qin Haiyang's situation is slightly similar to that of Ning Zetao, the 100m freestyle world champion at the time. Both of them came from the Navy Swimming Team, which trains in Shanghai all year round. Therefore, after the disbandment of the Bayi Team, Qin Haiyang also joined the Shanghai Team.

Among the new swimming athletes at this Olympics, there is the star-studded Pan Zhanle, and the women's breaststroke has also produced a leading figure - Tang Qianting, who was born in Shanghai in 2004. In the women's 100-meter breaststroke competition, Tang Qianting missed the gold medal, but she has proved that she is capable of taking on the breaststroke baton in the relay event.

Interestingly, in the 4x100m mixed team relay, Pan Zhanle and Tang Qianting had a sense of fate of being "bound". Because the event requires two female athletes and two male athletes to share the four batons. In the past, China's male athletes were Xu Jiayu in backstroke and Qin Haiyang in breaststroke, and the female athletes were Zhang Yufei in butterfly stroke and Yang Junxuan in freestyle. But in the preliminaries of this 4x100m mixed team relay, the Chinese team tried to replace Qin Haiyang, who had a slight abnormality in the individual event, with Pan Zhanle, who was in good shape. Then Tang Qianting was needed to compete in breaststroke and replace a female athlete. In the end, in this preliminaries, there were famous scenes of Tang Qianting, a woman, fighting six men in breaststroke, and Pan Zhanle, a man, chasing six women in freestyle.

Like Pan Zhanle, Tang Qianting, who had gone through a low period last year, is also looking forward to the Los Angeles Olympics. In the CCTV special program "Blooming in Paris", Tang Qianting said: "I am still young, and I want to carry the banner of Chinese swimming."

The importance that the "free shipping area" places on swimming is reflected in the endless stream of new stars with excellent physical conditions, as well as excellent coaching resources, physical rehabilitation resources, and training resources. Before setting off for the Paris Olympics, the Chinese swimming team conducted closed training at the Oriental Land Training Base in Shanghai. In addition to multiple international standard swimming pools, it is also equipped with the most advanced physical training facilities. It is no accident that Pan Zhanle and others have achieved such results with excellent physical conditions combined with scientific training.

At the same time, famous schools in Shanghai are also actively recruiting these swimming stars, such as Wang Shun from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Qin Haiyang from Tongji University.

However, Pan Zhanle is slightly different from the relatively gentle personalities of the previous Olympic champions Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei. As a "post-00s", he is more flamboyant and more domineering. In this Olympics, Pan Zhanle's post-match interviews frequently went viral, and netizens jokingly said that his words had the "momentum to overthrow the whole world".

Netizens’ attitudes towards Pan Zhanle are also quite interesting: those born in the 1980s look at Pan Zhanle like they are looking at the next generation, with admiration in their eyes; those born in the 1990s have a similar mentality to Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei, most of them are proud of him, but there are also many teasing looks; and those born in the 2000s look at Pan Zhanle with envy and admiration in their eyes.

Each generation has its own idol. After 40 years of Olympic journey, Chinese swimming has welcomed a new generation of swimming idol - he is domineering, able to break the world record in the swimming pool and win the 100-meter freestyle gold medal, and can chase the 100 meters and go from lagging behind to leading by half a body length; he is cute, and during the live interview he made a lot of complaints before remembering to ask the reporter "Can I say this?"; he would also pretend and act shy occasionally.

The multifaceted Pan Zhanle has the shadow of Wang Shun, Sun Yang, Wu Peng, Zhang Lin and Jiang Chengji. He is the Chinese men's swimming leader for three or four decades, from being just one step away from the podium, to winning the Olympic championship, to breaking the dusty world record, to winning the most important Olympic gold medal in the 4x100m mixed relay.

Pan Zhanle and others will continue to move forward, and ahead is the golden age of Chinese swimming that is gradually unveiled.