Australian swimming favourite Kyle Chalmers says he and his loved ones have been trolled so badly following comments by Chinese gold medallist Pan Zhanle that it’s marred his Olympic experience.
The 26-year-old said he’d received “thousands and thousands of messages and hate comments” and family members had also been targeted.
Chalmers claimed silver in the 100m freestyle at Paris 2024 to add to his gold in Rio and silver in Tokyo as Pan shattered the world record to win the normally tight race by a body length.
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But it wasn’t the Wenzhou 20-year-old’s “superhuman” performance in the La Defense Arena pool that cast a pall over Chalmers’ Olympic experience but comments he made poolside to Chinese media.
“On the first day, at the 4x100m relay, after we finished swimming I greeted Chalmers. He didn’t pay any attention at all,” Pan said.
Chalmers said he found the comments “weird” given all the interactions between the pair before the claim.
“I spoke in the marshalling room with him, after the race went straight over in the pool, shook his hand, on the podium shook hands,” he told 60 Minutes in an interview recorded during the Games that aired last night.
“And then it wasn’t until after that had all happened that I found about what was said in the media, which I, yeah, just find really weird.
“And then last night he came and found me and we exchanged racing caps, which was cool, so From my point of view there’s no animosity whatsoever. So I did find that very weird. It has definitely been challenging.”
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Chalmers told 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown said the trolls piled in, attacking him and his family and leaving him fearing for all of their safety.
“The thousands and thousands of messages and hate comments that I’ve received since then has been extremely challenging, and I think takes away from my special moment and makes me feel unhappy,” Chalmers said.
“But also having those messages go onto other people’s profiles that I love so desperately and them getting dragged into it, it’s really hard, it’s probably changed my Olympics experience a lot.”
China’s swim team came into the Games under a cloud after The New York Times revealed 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for doping ahead of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games three years ago.
They were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated, a decision that sparked an FBI investigation, and harsh criticism of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee, particularly from US anti-doping officials.
Pan was not one of those swimmers and has never tested positive for any banned substances.
Australian coach Brett Hawke, a former Olympian, questioned the legitimacy of the swim but Chalmers said he trusted his opponent.
“I know that in my heart of hearts, I can’t swim that fast,” he told 60 Minutes.
“Like I know that I can’t. I train so hard and I’d love to swim that fast but I know that it wasn’t possible for me to win that gold medal.”
Chalmers said he trusted everyone at the games was clean.
“They have to be clean to be here,” he said.
“I get drug tested all the time and I do all the right things. So I have to trust that my competitors are doing all the right things, and he’s never tested positive so I trust that he’s doing the right things and that he’s a superhuman,” Chalmers said.
“Like I’ve never been beaten by a body-length before in my entire career. And that last 15 metres, breathing and seeing his feet, I was like, “I’ve had the worst race of my life”, like, ‘All I can see is this guy’s feet, I’m coming dead last’.
“But he produced something that we’ve never seen, so yeah, I have to trust it.”
