Korean Swimming, Best Performance Ever at the World Championships

‘5 Medals, Including 2 Gold’ Korean Swimming, Best Performance Ever at the World Championships

First gold medalist in 13 years since Park Tae-hwan... Hwang Seon-woo, who won his first medal in the team event, surpassed Park Tae-hwan and became the number one medalist among Korean athletes in diving and artistic swimming, which is also a blessing in disguise.

Korean swimming broke a ‘first record’ in Doha, Qatar.

The 2024 International Swimming Federation World Championships can be remembered as a competition that confirmed the growth of Korean swimming and opened the door to a brighter future. 카지노

Of course, many swimming stars did not participate in this competition to prepare for the Paris Olympics, which opens in July.

However, Korean swimming held a ‘Paris Olympics rehearsal’ in Doha.

Despite the pressure of competing at the World Championships in February of this year after a tight schedule including the Fukuoka World Championships in July of last year, the Hangzhou Asian Games in September, the National Sports Festival in October, and the National Team Selection Competition in November, Korean swimming has achieved several shining milestones.

At the World Championships, which opened on February 2 and closed on the 19th, Korean swimming won 5 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze).

Before the Doha Games, Korean swimming had won a total of 6 medals at the World Championships (2 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze).

If you look at the events in which medals were won, the report card from Doha becomes even more spectacular.

• First, first, first… Renaissance Kite Golden Generation

Until last year, there was only one Korean athlete, Park Tae-hwan (34), who had won a gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships.

However, in Doha, Korean swimming produced two champions.

Kim Woo-min (22, Gangwon Provincial Office) won the men's 400m freestyle with a personal best of 3 minutes 42.71 seconds, becoming the first Korean gold medalist at the World Championships in 13 years since Park Tae-hwan in 2011.

Ace' Hwang Seon-woo (20, Gangwon Provincial Office) won gold in the men's 200m freestyle swim with a time of 1 minute 44.75 seconds.

This Doha Games is the first time that Korea has won two gold medals at a world championship.

Hwang Seon-woo and Kim Woo-min, who were crowned 'World Championship individual event champions', included Lee Ho-jun (22, Jeju City Hall), Yang Jae-hoon (25, Gangwon Provincial Office, only participating in the finals), and Lee Yu-yeon (23, Goyang City Hall, only participating in the preliminaries).

Together with his generational colleagues, he won a silver medal (7 minutes 01.94 seconds) in the men's 800m relay.

Although they lost the title of 'the first Asian team to win the Men's 800m Relay World Championships' by 0.1 seconds behind China (7:01.84), the Golden Generation achieved the feat of winning the first World Championships team event medal in Korean swimming history.

The silver medal won in the relay race is an important proof of the growth of Korean swimming.

A relay event medal cannot be won by a single genius.

As Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, and Lee Ho-jun competed fiercely in domestic competitions, Korean men's freestyle increased its international competitiveness and won a team medal at the World Championships, something that had not even been dreamed of in the past.

Although traditional swimming powerhouses such as Great Britain, the United States, and Australia either did not participate in the relay event or advanced 1.5 times, the Korean men's 800m relay achieved the qualifications of a medalist by setting a record of 7 minutes and 1 second, which would be a good candidate for a medal at any competition in Doha. Equipped with

Moreover, just before the Doha competition, they participated in '4 weeks of high-intensity training' planned by the Korea Swimming Federation in Australia.

It was training for the Paris Olympics, not the Doha World Championships.

The confidence of the golden generation grew further as they achieved brilliant results at the Doha World Championships, which were held without fully recovering their physical strength.

Ace' Hwang Seon-woo also enjoyed the honor of surpassing Park Tae-hwan (2 gold, 1 bronze) as the Korean individual with the most medals at the World Aquatics Championships.

Sunwoo Hwang, who took second place in the 200m freestyle in Budapest in 2022 (1 minute 44.47 seconds) and third place in Fukuoka in 2023 (1 minute 44.42 seconds), finished collecting gold, silver, and bronze medals in individual events in Doha, and won his first relay medal.

Increased personal career World Championship medals to 4 (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze).

• Although it was not as flashy as the hopeful management discovered in diving and artistic swimming, Korean diving also achieved valuable results in Doha.

Kim Su-ji (25, Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall), who became the first Korean diving World Aquatics Championships medalist in Gwangju in 2019, won two more medals in Doha.

Su-ji Kim took third place in the individual women's 3m springboard and also took third place in the mixed synchronized 3m springboard with Jae-kyung Lee (24, Incheon Metropolitan City).

Suji Kim is still the only Korean diving world championship medalist.

In addition, she also earned the title of being the first Korean diver to win two or more medals in a single competition.

Even among the players who did not stand on the podium, there are many who achieved their goals.

In addition to women's 3m springboard Kim Su-ji, men's 3m springboard Lee Jae-kyung and Woo Ha-ram (25, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation), men's 10m platform Shin Jeong-hwi (22, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation), and women's 10m platform Kim Na-hyeon (20, Gangwon Provincial Office) will participate in this competition.

Through this, he earned the right to participate in the individual event at the Paris Olympics.

A total of six Korean divers qualified to participate in the Paris Olympics, including Kim Young-taek (22, Jeju Provincial Office), who won a ticket to Paris in the men's 10m platform at last year's Fukuoka Games.

The joy felt by Korean diving is even greater as 'signposts' Kim Su-ji and Woo Ha-ram are showing an upward curve, Lee Jae-kyung is reaching his prime, and 'new stars' Kim Young-taek, Shin Jeong-hwi, and Kim Na-hyun are showing off their talents on the international stage.

The tickets to the Paris Olympics won by artistic swimming duet Lee Ri-young (23, Busan Swimming Federation) and Heo Yun-seo (18, scheduled to enter Sungkyunkwan University) are also precious.

Lee Ri-young and Heo Yun-seo placed 10th in both the duet technical and freestyle competitions at the Doha competition.

This is Korea's best achievement in this event since the 2007 Melbourne Games, when the World Aquatics Championships divided the women's artistic swimming duet event into technical and free.

Thanks to Lee Ri-young and Heo Yoon-seo, Korean artistic swimming will enter the Olympics for the first time in 12 years since the sisters Park Hyun-sun and Park Hyeon-ha at the 2012 London Games.