The United States’ 64-year unbeaten run in the men’s 4x100 metres medley ended at the Paris Olympics on Sunday as China swept to a seismic win at La Defense Arena.
Amid deafening cheers at the converted rugby stadium, the 100 metres freestyle world record holder Pan Zhanle brought China home with an outrageous swim as he, Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun won in a time of three minutes, 27.46 seconds.
Caeleb Dressel and the Americans took silver, 0.55 seconds behind the Chinese, while a Leon Marchand-powered France grabbed the bronze.
The U.S. did not compete at the 1980 Moscow Games due to a boycott, but they had never been beaten in the men’s medley final dating back to the inaugural event at the 1960 Rome Games.
Pan will take enormous credit for defeating them as he rocketed to the wall in 45.92 seconds.
Qin, who swam the breaststroke leg, was also important with a sizzling time of 57.98 to upstage France’s four-gold hero Marchand.
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