Sports thread: Everything sport related here.

[Randomuser]

It sucks that Pan's form isn't in the best shape but he already performed his role last year. He could retire now and still be a legend.

While the world championships are important, what matters and are actually remembered are the Olympics first.

Countless times there are loads of guys who have gotten gold at world championships constantly yet failed to convert that even to a medal at Olympics. It's just a. Entirely different game.

 

[henrik]

1. Pan shows up visibly not in form.
2. Pan complains about being tired.
3. Pan produces a swim time a 1.4 seconds slower than his WR, fails to even qualify for the finals and says he doesn't know what happened.
4. No Olympic champion in history has won a 100m freestyle at the world's 1 year after winning the Olympics.

You: He's just hiding his form. He values the relay more than the individual.

He's not going to. There's no magic involved. "Regaining his form" is a goal for the next Olympic cycle, not the next 3 days.

Li Bingjie is much more consistent swimmer. She broke her own Asian record to win silver in the women's 400m freestyle and even defeated Katie Ledecky. Li Bingjie was also 2nd in 200m freestyle, 4th in 1500m freestyle and 3rd in 4x200m freestyle relay.
Just too many excuses for this Pan guy.

 

[Randomuser]

Li Bingjie is much more consistent swimmer. She broke her own Asian record to win silver in the women's 400m freestyle and even defeated Katie Ledecky. Li Bingjie was also 2nd in 200m freestyle, 4th in 1500m freestyle and 3rd in 4x200m freestyle relay.
Just too many excuses for this Pan guy.

But she has rarely ever came first internationally especially when it mattered while Pan did.

In other news Qin Haiyang got his second gold in breaststroke. So 2 golds and a bronze. Too bad he couldn't have that performance during the Olympics.

 

[Lethe]

Pan Zhanle did his part in winning Silver for China in the Men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay tonight, but the star was 18yr-old Zhang Zhanshou who anchored the final leg. China was in fourth position at the final change and Zhang brought them back to second ahead of Australia and USA. Great Britain took the Gold as they had been favoured to.

Mollie O'Callaghan won Silver in the Women's 100m Freestyle final, 0.12s behind Marrit Steenbergen from the Netherlands, and she wasn't happy about it in the post-race interview. She described her year as a "shitshow" and said that she had hardly trained and that she was tired from her heavy schedule to date. I think she had placed a lot of pressure on herself for this race after unexpectedly missing out on a medal in the 100m Freestyle event in Paris. It was perhaps not the most gracious interview but I think you can forgive the disappointment that athletes feel in these moments. She has already won Gold in the Women's 200m Freestyle and was part of the Gold-winning Women's 4x100m and 4x200m Freestyle Relay teams, which should help to temper any disappointment.

 

[Randomuser]

It really sucks how swimming esp freestyle is so age biased towards younger people. Like by 25 if you're still there then you're already an anomaly.

 

[henrik]

But she has rarely ever came first internationally especially when it mattered while Pan did.

In other news Qin Haiyang got his second gold in breaststroke. So 2 golds and a bronze. Too bad he couldn't have that performance during the Olympics.

With Katie Ledecky winning most races, it is hard for anyone else to win in freestyle.

Qin Haiyang won 3 golds in 2023 world championships. He skipped 2024 world championships. Now he is back as the king.