Swimmer breaks record, drowns doping noise with golden stroke

Freestyle swimming prodigy Pan Zhanle reaffirmed the integrity and solid progress of Chinese swimmers by breaking his own world record to win the men's 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday night at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Pan, 19, who cleared several rounds of doping tests, finished in 46.40 seconds to win China's first swimming gold at the ongoing Games in the French capital, topping his 46.80 seconds record made in February at the world championships in Doha, Qatar.

Entering Wednesday's final session under huge pressure to end China's gold medal drought in the Paris Olympics pool, Pan sent the capacity crowd at the La Defense Arena into a frenzy as he shaved 0.4 second off his own record.