He is an Olympic silver medalist,[1] world champion, and the current world-record holder in the 800 metre freestyle.

At the 2003 World Aquatics Championships, he was the only Chinese male swimmer to reach the individual finals, finishing in eighth place.

Zhang Lin won a silver medal in the men's 400 meter freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with a time of 3:42.44, 0.58 seconds behind gold medalist South Korean Park Tae-hwan, and making him at the time the third fastest 400 meter freestyler in history (and setting a Chinese Record in the process).

Zhang's silver was the first Olympic swimming medal ever by a Chinese male swimmer.

[24][25] In 2010, Zhang found that he suffered a rare kind of asthma, and it led his decline.