Sun Yang — who might objectively be the best freestyle swimmer in the world — pulled off a “miracle swim” even for his standards on Friday in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona.

Check out the video above. When Sun hits the water (lane 8, very bottom of the screen), his team’s in fifth place and more than two seconds behind the third-place French. All he does is swim 200 meters in 1:43.96 and beat both the French (lane 6) and Japanese (lane 3) swimmers by a fingertip.

“Miracle swim” is how Global Times’s headline described it. As Xinhua writes: “Sun must be wondering whether or not he could one day compete in the 200 meters freestyle as well as the 400, 800 and 1,500 meters, because on Friday’s form he would be unstoppable.”

Poor grammar aside, that’s basically about right.

Sun Yang became the first Chinese male swimmer to win Olympic gold last summer in London, and judging by his performance at the world championships, he might win a few more. As long as he stays out of trouble.

Another look:

(H/T Alicia)

Remember swimmer Sun Yang at the London Olympics? He broke his own world record in the 1500-meter freestyle, and won another gold in the 400-meter free, joining Michael Phelps as the only male swimmers to win two individual titles.

With the success came endorsements and a hot girlfriend, but China’s poster-boy swimmer now finds himself at the center of a scandal.

According to Xinhua, Sun’s been so overwhelmed with fame and commercial interests that he’s forgotten his responsibilities as an athlete. And after skipping 40 days’ worth of training and posting pictures of his high-profile relationship on Sina Weibo, he’s been “convicted” by the Sports School of Zhejiang, where he is enrolled. He is fined one month’s allowance and temporarily suspended from all sponsorships.

Sun has also reportedly had big arguments with his coach of more than 10 years, Zhu Zhigen, who has been hospitalized for high blood pressure and thyroid nodule.

Li Jianshe, the school dean, told Xinhua, “This place is for good athletes, not for those with privileges… we have to punish him, as everyone is the same when it comes to rules.”

Sun’s popularity soared after the Olympics, and his love affair with Nian Nian, a flight attendant, trended on Sina Weibo. Sun’s coaches, to say nothing of his family, all disapproved of this relationship, and netizens have also been turning against the golden boy. @fion黎明之前 wrote, “Sun’s body is top of the line but his brain is underdeveloped.” And @不能吃我 made fun of him: “Well, he can’t be blamed. After all, it is hard to go to 5 am training directly from clubbing.” In a survey conducted on Sina Weibo, as of now, 37,000 people supported the punishment, while 7,000 voted for forgiveness.

Sun recently posted — then quickly deleted — this message: “Those who care about me, please do not hurt the one that I care about.”

Is Sun Yang falling apart? As the scandal grows, more questions will be asked. Can he be both a professional athlete and playboy? Will he be able to have fun without ruining the image of the national swimming team? Can an individual thrive in the collective mentality environment of organized sports? More likely, he will have to choose one or the other.

Xiao Yi is a travel enthusiast who tweets @ellies_day. (Image Xinhua)

Sun Yang made history last night by becoming the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming event, beating defending champion (and favorite) Park Tae Hwan of South Korea in the 400-meter freestyle and setting a new Olympic record of 3:40:14 (video here). After the race, he straddled a lane buoy and let out a primal scream as the CCTV announcer called him a “Chinese manly man.”

The win was nearly marred with controversy, as Park almost didn’t compete in the finals due to a judge’s decision. According to Sina:

Park was initially disqualified by a judge on the pool deck for a false start in the morning heats, after which South Korean media accused so-called referee conspiracy by a Chinese judge. However, it turned out to be a rumor as no Chinese judge was involved in the event. Later, Park was reinstated in the final after the FINA Jury of Appeal examined the protest lodged by the Korean Swimming Federation and made the decision based on the recommendation of the FINA Technical Swimming Commission.

After the race, Sun dedicated this win to his coach, who is apparently in bad health, and then had this to say to the South Koreans, as translated by Sina:

“I have swum my personal best time and I want to use this swim to tell the South Koreans something. I want to show that we are good swimmers and we do not need to do anything other than swim in order to win.”

Those are manly-man words.

Park, for his part, didn’t blame the judge’s decision in the morning for causing his bad run.

“I tried my best in the race. I don’t want to say that what happened with having been disqualified was bad for my performance, but it was,” he said.

Oh, wait. Yeah, he did.

He was gracious to Sun though, sort of:

“I lost the race, but I am glad that it was an Asian who won. It is something we can all be proud of,” Park said.