"It would be nice if this gold medal was won on the first day of the Lunar New Year and presented to the people of the whole country. Pan Zhanle said seriously while showing the gold medal to the camera.
On February 11, local time, in the men's 4 100-meter freestyle relay final of the 2024 Doha World Swimming Championships, Pan Zhanle and teammates Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu won gold with a time of 3:11.08, beating the Italian team and the United States team, creating history for Chinese men's swimming.
Pan Zhanle, who served as the first sticker, swam 46.80 seconds, breaking the men's 100m freestyle record. On February 15, local time, he won the championship with a time of 47.53 seconds and won the gold medal in the individual event of the World Championships for the first time.
The Chinese team won gold in the men's 4 100m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Doha. From left to right: Wang Haoyu, Zhang Zhanshuo, Ji Xinjie and Pan Zhanle.
In 2023, Pan Zhanle broke the Asian record in the 100-meter freestyle at the National Swimming Championships, so he was called the new "Asian Flying Fish" by swimming fans.
At the time, he saw this as a "commercial touting" encouragement, believing that he was far from qualified. He told the Global People reporter: "Next, we must continue to work hard and win gold medals in the Olympic Games and World Championships to be regarded as a real 'flying fish'." ”
Pan Zhanle, congratulations on becoming a well-deserved "World Flying Fish"!
A "I person" who doesn't talk much
The significance of the men's 100-meter freestyle is comparable to the men's 100-meter flyer battle in track and field competitions. The sport has long been dominated by European and American players.
It can be said that Pan Zhanle's breakthrough has brought Chinese men's swimming to a new height.
In an interview after winning the relay race, Pan Zhanle's tone was quite calm. He said lightly: "Actually, I told the coach before the game that there may be surprises in this game and today's state, but I didn't dare to say it clearly, for fear that if I said it, it would fail." ”
This kind of calmness and coolness of "people don't talk much" was taught by the Global People reporter last year - before the start of the Asian Games, Pan Zhanle was interviewed by the Global People reporter at the Oriental Luzhou Training Base in Shanghai.
He wore a red jersey with the words "Riding the Wind and Waves" written on it, and the cameraman changed the camera position several times to prevent his long legs from accidentally drawing pictures.
Poon Chin-lok was interviewed by Global People.
If you don't look at the halo of the world record and the eye-catching height of 192 centimeters, 19-year-old Pan Zhanle is like a cute college student everywhere in life.
In his spare time during training, Pan Zhanle will play "Happy Entertainment", listen to the songs of Jay Chou and the British rock band Coldplay, or "eat melons" on Weibo, watch cute cats, and collect funny emojis.
When the cameraman adjusted the camera position, he casually read out two hot search entries of interest, namely "Why does celebrity tax evasion happen repeatedly" and "How ordinary people become torchbearers of the Asian Games".
Pan Zhanle plays with the kitten.
He also did the popular "MBTI personality test" on the Internet, and the results showed that the personality type is "ISTJ" - I stands for introversion, S stands for realism, T stands for rationality, and J stands for independence.
Judging from the interview performance, he is indeed a standard "I person", saying 10 words per sentence is the limit, and he wants to get up and flee several times.
When asked "do you prefer to take classes in the classroom or swim in the pool", he replied, "Now?" Now I prefer to be in the classroom because it's awkward to sit here and be interviewed. ”
Reporter: "Hahaha (save me, save me, save me) ......."And what about the usual? ”
Without thinking, he said, "Swim." ”
Indeed, when he swims, the cute boy shows another amazing appearance.
In the blue pool, he is calm, confident, stretched, and swift, like a fish that is invincible.
Pan Zhanle is training.
According to the personality test, "ISTJ" people do not like to talk nonsense, but will analyze their surroundings and take the most practical and effective actions based on the facts.
Although the network test is somewhat "metaphysical", in the eyes of his teammates, this is indeed very in line with Pan Zhanle's personality.
He seems to be ashamed to show his hard work and hard work, and always says "I'm a mess", "I like to be lazy", and "I don't remember".
But anyone can imagine that on a national-level platform, the winner or loser is only a millimeter.
Some people will lose their sense of water if they don't get into the water for two or three days, and they need to re-run with the buoyancy, resistance and temperature of the water to find the most exquisite balance point.
If it were only talent, it would be absolutely impossible to persist to this day.
"Standers Spectators".
Pan Zhanle's Weibo name is "Stand Spectators", which is quite a "comedian".
The name comes from the 15th World Short Course Swimming Championships in December 2021, the first World Championships in his career, but he did not qualify for the final of any of the individual competitions he competed in, and could only watch from the stands.
Pan Zhanle at the 15th World Short Course Swimming Championships.
In the following two years, he made rapid progress and broke the Asian record in the 100m freestyle with a time of 47.22 seconds at the 2023 National Swimming Championships, rising to No. 1 in the world rankings.
What happened? Pan Zhanle can't say anything, he only knows that he will go all out to do every training according to the coach's requirements.
How much effort is used in each meter is muscle memory formed in training. Bring the feeling of training into the game, keep it in good shape, and your performance will improve. He said.
What was the most memorable game of all the games in the past?
To the reporter's surprise, Pan Zhanle's answer was not the individual competition, but the 2023 Fukuoka World Swimming Championships, where he teamed up with Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang and Wang Changhao to win the silver medal in the Chinese men's 4 100m medley.
The Chinese swimming corps reached the podium of the World Championships for the first time and set a new Asian record.
Qin Haiyang, Xu Jiayu, Pan Zhanle and Wang Changhao (from left to right) after the men's 4 100m medley final at the Fukuoka World Swimming Championships. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaoyu.
Pan Zhanle recalled that after the first three sticks, the Chinese team struggled to maintain the third place. "When I jumped, I was almost fourth, so I thought I would fight hard and not leave any regrets, so I swam 46.62 seconds and desperately held on to second place. ”
He said: Only when there is national honor can there be personal ideals.
Now, in the men's 4 100m freestyle relay final of the 2024 Doha World Swimming Championships, Pan Zhanle and his teammates are full of firepower, and the Chinese team has won the men's swimming relay world championship for the first time, achieving a historic breakthrough.
In the just-concluded men's and women's 4 100m freestyle relay finals, Pan Zhanle and Wang Haoyu, Li Bingjie and Yu Yiting won the gold medal with a good time of 3:21.18, once again achieving a historical breakthrough - since the establishment of the event at the 2015 World Championships, the championship has always been won by the Australian team and the United States team.
Together with the men's 4 200m freestyle relay, Poon has already won four gold medals in Doha.
Spectators from the stands", once self-motivated, has now become the "Versailles" in the mouth of teenagers - an online term that refers to the way of speaking that "seems to complain, but in fact shows off".
I haven't been in the stands since I got that name. He said.
"Sooner or later, we can win the championship".
Pan Zhanle's hometown Wenzhou has been rated as the "National Swimming Hometown" for many years, and there are more than 100 swimming venues in the city.
In such an environment, swimming became a natural choice. At first, it was just parents who "found something to do after school" for their energetic children, but he soon showed his talent and was selected to Wenzhou Sports School at the age of 7.
The coach at the time, Wang Shi, remembered that Pan Zhanle was small, didn't like to talk much, and was extremely serious in training. In the swimming team, children who do not perform well will be punished for practicing more, but for Pan Zhanle, who "likes to swim very much", "the punishment is not to go into the water, so he feels very uncomfortable".
In his first year at the sports school, Pan Zhanle won four individual championships in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter medley and 400-meter freestyle in the 15th Wenzhou Games. The following year, he won four gold medals in the 15th Zhejiang Provincial Games.
Pan Zhanle won gold in the 15th Zhejiang Provincial Games.
In 2018, Pan Zhanle was selected into the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Team under the tutelage of coach Zheng Kunliang, who once coached Sun Yang. Entering the provincial team means becoming a reserve force for the national team, but in the end, only a few people can complete a qualitative leap at the age of **.
At that time, Pan Zhanle was less than 180 cm tall, and he was obviously half a head shorter when he took a photo with his teammates. He was used to winning gold medals, but suddenly found that "no matter how much he swims, he can't compete with others".
Of course, there is frustration, but the 14-year-old boy does not understand the cruelty of professional competition, and just takes every class seriously according to the coach's arrangement. He said that at that time, he thought every day that "I can go back to playing games after finishing training", and before I knew it, I "got through it".
In Zheng Kunliang's view, Pan Zhanle's progress comes from physical development, but also from solid training. On average, he swims about 7,000 meters a day. "He was training from 50 meters to 1,500 meters, not just the short distance. Last year we also let him try 10 kilometres of open water. ”
Although the training was hard, what Pan Zhanle remembers is always positive feedback.
It's only been more than four years since he started competing nationally in 2019, and he doesn't think he's experienced a real slump.
Whether it's a coach's reproach or a game failure, all unpleasant experiences and experiences are like sanitizer in the pool that quickly disappears.
Perhaps it is this "dull feeling" and stable spiritual core that makes him "never hate swimming". He knows very well that training is for himself, and he will never go into the water to prove anything to others.
Every game, whether it's worse or better, I can adjust in time. It is impossible for others to cheer me on, and it is impossible for others to look down on me to really make me slower, or rely on myself. ”
In the steady practice day after day, Pan Zhanle ushered in self-breakthroughs again and again.
At the 2022 World Swimming Championships in Budapest, he swam 47.65 seconds in the semifinals of the 100m freestyle, becoming the second Chinese swimmer to swim 48 seconds in this event. At the 2023 Fukuoka World Swimming Championships, he finished fourth in the 100m freestyle with a time of 47.43 seconds, just 0.0 miles away from the third place01 seconds.
If he can swim his best time to break the Asian record, Poon can win a silver medal in the 100m freestyle in Fukuoka. Regrets? It doesn't seem to be.
He thought he had what it took to challenge for the title, but in the end he was just a little bit close. This is the charm of competitive sports and the motivation for him to move forward.
In fact, I never think about winning or losing when I compete, I pursue more to break through myself and improve my performance. Pan Zhanle said: "The characteristics of the world's top players are their consistent performance, and I still have a gap with them. But if I can practice my weak points in training hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times, and don't pin my hopes on the last kick in the competition, I will win the championship sooner or later. ”
Not arrogant or impatient, and finally to the top. In 2024, Pan Zhanle, who has achieved his goal, said: "Today is just the beginning. "Continue to ride the waves, boy, and we will see you in Paris!
Pan Zhanle won the men's 100m freestyle championship at the Doha World Swimming Championships.