At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Panic qualified again for the men's 100 m freestyle by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 52.12 from the Croatian Open Championships in Zagreb. He challenged seven other swimmers on the second heat, including fellow Olympic veterans Alexandr Agafanov of Uzbekistan and Camilo Becerra of Colombia. Panic raced to third place by 0.18 of a second behind Becerra, outside his entry time of 52.75. Panic failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed fifty-fifth overall in the preliminaries.