The Rise of Chinese Pan Zhenle from Olympic Gold Winner to Western Media Martyr

From the perspective of a North American immigrant from China, the Western media treatment of Pan Zhenle, a Chinese Olympic gold winner, has ranged from rude to racist. It has been well documented that the American silver winner refused to shake Pan’s hand and some random Australian swim coach (who has nothing much to do with the current Olympics) caused a Western media circus to discredit Pan’s gold medal for unfounded suspicion of doping, which has already been discredited by the Olympics committee and major Western media like The Guardian.

Pan won China’s first gold medal of the Paris Games in the 100 metre freestyle, beating the world record he already held, by shaving 0.4 seconds off his time. The 19-year-old finished in 46.60 seconds, ahead of Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers and Romania’s David Popovici. Former Olympic swimmer and coach Hawke, who is not part of Australia’s Paris team, posted on his Instagram that “it’s not humanly possible to beat that field” and that the swim was “not real life. Not in that pool, against that field.” He said he “knew these [swimmers] intimately, had studied them for 30 years, studied this sport, studied speed, I understand it”. “I’m upset right now because you don’t win 100 freestyle by a body length on that field.”

How could a random Australian swim coach who was not even part of the Paris-Olympic team motivate the global media to discredit an Olympic gold winner had Pan not been non-white? And it is no surprise that the most unfounded and racist headline came from American Vox Media’s SB Nation.

Why does an Asian athlete winning gold and breaking the world’s record in a sports category so little sense to Australia and America other than pure racism and Asian hate? I don’t get it.

A little less than three weeks, in Los Angeles, I was listening to NPR’s interview with Lang Leav who recent wrote the coming-of-age novel “Others Were Emeralds” where she recounted, as an Asian immigrant teen growing up in an Australian suburb, about the open racism and hostility against Asian immigrants. In her book, she wrote about a real story that happened where an 8-year-old Asian girl was spat on by white adult Australians who told her that she did not belong. Historical incidents like that explain the current Australian climate against non-whites internationally.

Even back in the rise of Hitler in late 1930s, Leni Riefenstahl, a German and pro-Hitler filmmaker defied Hitler to include Jesse Owens trumphing over his Aryan competitors in her documentary, we must question how and why the current Western media is complicit in smearing the victory and triumph of a Chinese athlete who broke the world’s record in 100-meter freestyle swim. Scary as it sounds, there is certainly a pro-Aryan sensibility in the current global politics and culture akin to that of Nazi Germany, exemplified by the lack of acceptance of an Asian athlete winning over his white competitors.

The media martyrdom of Pan Zhanle sadly exposes how some Western media and gatekeepers disregard the very goal of the Olympic movement which is “to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”

It makes me wonder what the next Olympics and its culture will be like in 2028 Los Angeles.