China’s new world record holder in the 100m freestyle appeared to take a swipe at Aussie Kyle Chalmers after obliterating the field to win the gold medal in Thursday morning’s final.

Pan Zhanle accused Chalmers of “ignoring” him in the opening days of the Olympics, saying the Australian and other rivals had “disrespected” the new freestyle king and his coaching staff.

Pan, 19, broke his own record by 0.4 seconds in claiming Paris gold in a time of 46.40, with Chalmers making a late charge to take silver in a distant time of 47.48.

Speaking with Chinese media poolside, Pan appeared to claim he had been given the cold shoulder by his rivals in the days before the race.

“After we finished the 4x100m freestyle relay on the first day, I greeted Chalmers, but he completely ignored me,” he said in comments translated into English.

“This also included the US team’s (Jack) Alexy. When we trained, our coach was on the deck, and someone did a flip turn and splashed water directly on the coach.

“This behaviour seemed a bit disrespectful to us.

“But today, we beat all of them, and broke the world record in such a difficult pool. It was an extraordinary performance and a great start for the Chinese team.”