In general, I have no idea how to train myself to swim at speeds like Pan Zhanle’s.” – Popov

Four-time Olympic swimming champion Alexander Popov has admitted he had no idea about the training of Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle, which helped him set a new world record at the Paris Olympics.

On Wednesday, a Chinese man won the 100m freestyle with a world record at the 2024 Olympics. Pan Zhanle covered the distance in 46.4 seconds. The 19-year-old improved by 0.4 seconds his own world record, set in February at the world championships in Doha, Qatar.

— I don’t even know what’s more confusing here, the overall result of 46.40 or the distribution of distances. Personally, I have no idea how to train myself to swim at such speeds. Among other things, you need to have enormous patience: swimming for 22.28 for the first fifty dollars and for 24.12 for the second. It’s very painful. In the last quarter, the muscles simply start to stop from overexertion, and this muscle pain itself is very intense, as if the whole body is filled with cast iron. And in this state you have to force yourself to swim even faster.

Although Pan Zhanle swam his first leg of the relay in 47 seconds, I honestly didn’t think he would be able to pull the trigger that quickly. Therefore, I assumed that in a more advantageous situation in the final, there would be a slightly more advanced David Popovich.

I would be less surprised if the Chinese were coached by Denis Cottrell, who once coached Grant Hackett and then Sun Yan in Australia. At one time, this Australian specialist talked a lot at training camps with my mentor Gennady Turetsky, and I know that even then they discussed sprint tactics a lot, especially the second half of the 100 meters. After all, to swim like Pan Zhanle in Paris, you still need to have your head ready to face numbers of this order. It is not so easy to understand that such speeds are possible,” Popov told RT.

The Olympic Games in the French capital will end on August 11.

RT

More sports news in our telegram channel .