China's Pan Zhanle celebrates his win after storming to victory in the swimming men's 100m freestyle final at the Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday.
China's freestyle swimmer Pan Zhanle has thanked a scientific training program for his world record-breaking feat at the Paris Olympics as the country celebrates its first men's Olympic swimming gold medal in a sprint event.
Entering Wednesday's final session under huge pressure to end China's gold medal drought in the Paris pool, the 19-year-old sent the capacity crowd at the La Defense Arena into a frenzy by clocking 46.40 seconds in the 100m freestyle final, to deliver the team a long-anticipated gold and take an incredible 0.4 seconds off his own previous world record time.
It was the first world record broken in any swimming competition at the Paris Games, and has significantly lifted the Chinese team's spirit following a series of near-misses of the podium top spot in earlier events.
Pan's record-breaking performance on Wednesday came after having completed a rigorous doping test program, prior to and during the Paris Games, with zero positive results, which has sent out a strong statement on the improvement and integrity of Chinese swimmers.