Phelps: It is wrong to accuse Pan Zhanle
On Monday (5th) local time, American swimming legend “Flying Fish” Phelps said in an interview with reporters in Paris that it was wrong to baselessly accuse Pan Zhanle of his performance. According to the Singaporean media Channel News Asia (CNA), Phelps was interviewed by reporters at the “Omega House” in Paris that day and answered a series of questions ranging from past competition experiences to attitudes towards doping, including: Including questions about Pan Zhanle’s outstanding achievements. “We cannot blame others until we know the facts,” he replied. Last week, Pan Zhanle not only won the championship in the men’s 100-meter freestyle competition at the Paris Olympics, but also set a new world record of 46.40 seconds. On Sunday, he won the men’s 4×100-meter medley as the last stroke of the Chinese team, ending the U.S. team’s 64-year unbeaten record in this event. According to the South China Morning Post, Phelps also raised questions after Pan Zhanle won the 100-meter freestyle, saying that he “could not understand” how Pan Zhanle could break his best time of 46.80 seconds again. In an interview on Monday, Phelps changed his previous questioning attitude and said that accusing Pan Zhanle was tantamount to questioning the 23 Olympic gold medals he had won in his career and the world record he had set.
“It’s like when my time was 4 minutes and 03 seconds (the world record for the 400-meter individual medley he set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics), but you said I cheated, the situation is the same,” Phelps said. “Pan Zhanle’s performance is unbelievable. But before we know the facts, we can’t make groundless accusations.” “You can’t do that. I know that their country has conducted a microscope on them, and some of these athletes are under review because they ( have tested positive in the past…but for those who have never tested positive, you can’t blame them,” said Phelps, a former U.S. men’s swimmer who won 28 Olympic medals, the most in history. Medal athlete. At the same time, he also holds the record for the most Olympic gold medals, the most Olympic individual event gold medals (23), and the most Olympic individual event medals in history.
However, during his career, he was suspended twice for smoking marijuana and drunk driving. According to his self-report, he once had suicidal thoughts. But at the same time, Phelps remained stubborn in the interview and was unwilling to accept the review results of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that Chinese swimmers tested positive for doping due to environmental pollution. “If you test positive, you shouldn’t come back to play,” Phelps said. In the interview, he also expressed his understanding of British player Peaty’s remarks slandering the Chinese team after the game, saying, “It really breaks my heart to see someone who has been working hard to prepare for the Olympics for four consecutive years, only to have his (medal) taken away by someone who cheated. “.
According to the Associated Press (AP) report, Phelps also testified before the U.S. Congress in June this year, claiming that WADA did not take enough measures to deal with Chinese athletes. Recently, many players from the Chinese team, including Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei, have responded to outside doubts, saying bluntly that the Chinese team’s victory was “clean” but they were treated unfairly. Qin Haiyang even bluntly said that too frequent doping tests “really affected the pace of preparations.” “I have lost count of the number of examinations I have done. Anyway, I often get called up at 6 o’clock in the morning for examinations,” he told reporters at a previous press conference. On July 23, the World Swimming Federation announced the results of their large-scale pre-match doping testing for Paris Olympic participants, stating that the Chinese swimming team underwent the most intensive testing, with each person tested an average of 21 times in more than half a year.
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