Paris, France, August 4, 2024: China ended the United States' 64-year unbeaten run in the men's 4x100m medley relay at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, August 4.
Amid deafening cheers at La Defense Arena, a converted rugby stadium, the 100m freestyle world record-holder Pan Zhanle led his teammates Xu Jiayu (backstroke), Qin Haiyang (breaststroke) and Sun Jiajun (butterfly) to victory as they recorded a time of 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds.
"This is magic for me," Pan, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday, said of the medley victory. "We make a good team and we managed to get a great result."
The United States took the silver in 3:28.01, 0.55 seconds behind China, while France, powered by Leon Marchand, won the bronze, finishing nearly a second behind in 3:28.38.
"Today China was just a little bit better. I think all of us going in, we're putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to be great out there. So, hats off to China, they did a great race tonight," Ryan Murphy of the US team told reporters.
The Americans did not compete at the 1980 Moscow Games due to a boycott, but they had never been beaten in the men's medley final dating to the inaugural event at the 1960 Rome Games.
Pan’s split time in the freestyle was 45.92, which earned praise from another USA swimmer.
"That was a monster split for Pan ... so that's a pretty cool birthday present," said Hunter Armstrong of the US.
Qin, who swam the breaststroke leg in the medley, was also crucial in the victory with a time of 57.98 to beat France's four-gold medal winner Marchand.
Chinese swimmers had been unfairly portrayed in Western media reports about some food-contamination cases, raising doubts over their capabilities. Pan's success came as a timely, powerful response.
Acknowledging that he had been under tremendous pressure, Pan said that he had slept little before the final because of a doping test that ran into the early hours of the morning.
According to World Aquatics, swimming's global governing body, Chinese swimmers were tested on average 21 times from January 1 to the start of the Games. In comparison, Australian and American swimmers were tested only four and six times on average, respectively.
Also on Sunday – the final day of swimming – Asian Games MVP Zhang Yufei won a bronze in the women’s 50 freestyle, and China earned another bronze in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, again with Zhang in the team.
The United States won gold with a world record 3:49.63, ahead of Australia (3:53.11) and China (3:53.23).
(China Daily/World Aquatics)
