Paris Olympics 2024: Australian swim team handed sobering warning by China at worlds

Australia are facing the sobering prospect of a Chinese team secretly preparing to take this year's Paris Olympics by storm – led by a teen superstar who demolished the 100m world record.

Xinjie Ji and Zhanle Pan celebrate during the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Final. Picture: Getty

Australia’s champion swimmers have been sent an ominous warning that their Olympic pool party is about to come under siege from a resurgent Chinese team.

Already engaged in a war on water with the United States, the Dolphins are now facing the sobering prospect of a Chinese team secretly preparing to take this year’s Paris Olympics by storm.

The signs of China’s re-emergence as a powerful force in Olympic swimming have been simmering away for years but they came to the boil at the world championships in Doha on Monday after a scarcely believable performance by Pan Zhanle.

Just 19, Pan demolished the 100 metres freestyle world record when he led off the Chinese 4x100m relay to gold to confirm himself as the favourite for gold in the blue-riband event in Paris.

His eye-popping time of 46.80 seconds wiped 0.06 off the previous mark of 46.86 set in 2022 by another 19-year-old speedster – Romania’s David Popovici, who had eclipsed a record set during the super suit era.

China's Zhanle Pan competes in the final of the men's 4X100m freestyle relay. Picture: AFP

The performance of Pan and his teammates will set off alarm bells around the entire swimming world, especially in Australia after Kyle Chalmers won the 100m freestyle world title last year and led a youthful Aussie team to victory in the relay.

Chalmers did not enter the current world championships taking place in Doha because he’s focusing on Paris, but King Kyle will be under no illusions that his biggest threat for Paris right now is the Chinese teenager who has beaten the Australian’s lifetime best (47.08) three times in the last five months.

The Australian male sprinters aren’t the only ones facing fresh challenges from the other Chinese swim stars coming to the surface.

Zac Stubblety-Cook lost his 200m breaststroke world title – and world record – to China’s Qin Haiyang last year while China’s women beat the star-studded Aussies (and their world record) to win the 4x200m freestyle gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Xinjie Ji and Zhanle Pan celebrate during the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Final. Picture: Getty

Zhang Yufei won the women’s 100m butterfly title last year, relegating Emma McKeon to fourth place, while Li Bingji took the silver medal in the 800m ahead of Ariarne Titmus.

The Chinese also won the mixed medley relay last year, which is also on the program for Paris, setting themselves up for a massive haul in Paris.

The most gold medals China has won at a single Olympics is five but all indications are they are on course to shatter that record in the French capital – which would eat into Australia's tally.

The Aussies won a record nine gold medals at the last Olympics in Tokyo and have set their sights on a bigger haul in France but need everything to go right with the Americans expected to bounce back after they fell below their usual expectation in Tokyo.

But the biggest danger for the Australian team could be longer term, with the US hosting the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and China targeting Brisbane 2032.

The Chinese have already been given a massive leg up ahead of Brisbane with World Aquatics awarding the hosting rights for the 2029 world championships to Beijing, which is expected to attract a new generation of stars in the world’s most populated country.

China’s plans to dominate swimming has also got some of the old guard interested with Sun Yang still hoping to make the team for Paris when his doping ban expires in May.

China's Sun Yang is rumoured to be keen to return for Paris, when his drug ban expires. Picture: AFP

Chinese officials are notoriously secret so are keeping quiet about Sun but it’s known he is back in heavy training and hasn’t taken his name off the registered testing pool.

If he does make it to Paris, Sun would likely face two Aussies – Sam Short and Elijah Winnington – in the 400m freestyle, the first event on the Olympic swimming schedule.

Short won the world title in 2023 while Winnington was crowned world champion in 2022 before taking silver on Monday morning, finishing a close second behind South Korea’s Kim Woo-min.

“I came here to race, and the focus is on Paris, but I am happy where I am at,” Winnington said.

A lot of the world’s top swimmers opted to miss the current world titles, including Short, but the 400m was still a stacked field, with the reigning Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui entered, though he missed out on the final.

But for other events the fields were embarrassingly weak.

Australia’s long unbeaten run in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay came to an end when they fielded a mostly second-string line-up in Doha.

They still won silver behind the Netherlands, who were almost seven seconds behind Australia’s world record set last year.

“We just wanted to come out and do our best, so coming home with the silver medal for our country is something we are proud of,” said Shayna Jack, who swam the anchor leg.

“There is nothing better than hunting, therefore we will be hunting for the next six months toward the Olympics.”

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024: Australian swim team handed sobering warning by China at worlds