Why Olympic athlete’s victory will never count despite him breaking world record
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Adam Pretty/Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
An Olympic swimmer's world record-breaking performance will never be an official record, due to a little-known unfair rule.
The Paris Games are set to feature 10,714 athletes from 206 countries around the world, all battling it out to win gold medals for their teams.
And one impressively broke a world record...it just doesn't count as such.
Australian swimmer, Kyle Chalmers, left the world in awe when he smashed the world record while representing the Aussie men's 4x100m freestyle relay team.
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Joining him in the relay team were Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam and Kai Taylor, with the 'Big Tuna' bringing it home in the final leg of the race securing them with silver behind the US.
But despite finishing his leg of the swim in 46.59 seconds, his score will not count due to an annoying detail in the Olympic rules.
The reason behind this is that the time was set during a relay race.
Unfairly, the official World Aquatics rules state that it is only the swimmer in the lead leg who is eligible for an official time.
And because Chalmers broke the record as the fourth person to hit the water, his time will never count.
The previous record holder, Pan Zhanle, set his time at 46.80 seconds earlier this year.
However, Chalmer's record was never set to be that long-lasting, despite never being officially awarded it, as Pan Zhanle actually managed to beat his own record yesterday [31 July].
During the men's 100m freestyle final, he set a new world-record by 0.4 seconds.
But it wasn't awarded without controversy, as Zhanle's time has been branded 'not humanely possible' by a former Olympian.
Aussie coach Brett Hawke took to his Instagram stories, and said: "Listen, I'm just going to be honest, I am angry at that swim.
"My friends are the fastest swimmers in history.
"I know these people intimately, I've studied them for 30 years.
"I've studied this sport. I've studied speed.
"I understand it. I'm an expert in it, that's what I do okay.
"I'm upset right now because you don't win 100 freestyle by a body length on that field. You just don't do it."
His bold claims continued: "It is not humanly possible to beat that field by a body length. I don't care what you say."
Despite the comments made by the Aussie coach, silver medalist Chalmers, 26, did not seek to take anything away from Pan's victory.
Speaking after the race, he said: "I do everything I possibly can to win the race and trust everyone's doing the same as I am, staying true to the integrity of sport.
"I trust that… he deserves that gold medal."