Korea seeks new dawn for swimming at Paris Olympics

Korea has never excelled in swimming on the international stage, but Hwang, Kim and a few other standouts could add their names to the history books alongside Park Tae-hwan, who remains Korea’s lone Olympic swimming medalist.

Hwang Sun-woo trains at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chuncheong during a media day ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics on June 26. [YONHAP]

A young guard of Korean swimmers is headed to Paris to vie for the country’s first medal in the sport since 2012, with world champions Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min headlining the national team as they seek to finish what they started in Tokyo.

Swimming at the Paris Olympics will run from July 27 to Aug. 4, with 15 athletes on the Korean national team.

Korea has never excelled in swimming on the international stage, but Hwang, Kim and a few other standouts could add their names to the history books alongside Park Tae-hwan, who remains Korea’s lone Olympic swimming medalist.

There are four different strokes in Olympic swimming — butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. And swimmers taking on each stroke in the medley. The distance for each of the events varies, from 50 meters to 1,500 meters.

Hwang, 21, heads to Paris on the back of a world title — winning gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in February.

Hwang Sun-woo wins the men's 100-meter freestyle final at Mokpo Indoor Swimming Pool in Mokpo, South Jeolla on Oct. 18, 2023. [YONHAP]

He was the only Korean swimmer to reach a final at the Tokyo Olympics, in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle races, but failed to medal. This year, he will again compete in both events and spoke about wanting to show his “accumulated experience” from the last three years at the Paris Olympics during a press conference last month.

Kim, 22, will have the busiest schedule of all the swimmers on the Korean national team. He will represent Korea in four freestyle events — 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and 1500-meter.

Kim Woo-min competes in the men's 400-meter relay at the 104th National Sports Festival at Mokpo Indoor Swimming Pool in Mokpo, South Jeolla on Oct. 17, 2023. [YONHAP]

He also fell short in Tokyo but heads to Paris after winning gold in the men’s 400-meter freestyle at the world championships and a silver medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

Lee Ju-ho is returning to the Olympics in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke, and Cho Sung-jae is back in the 200-meter breaststroke.

There are a handful of first-time Olympians representing Korea in individual men’s events. Ji Yu-chan qualified for the men’s 50-meter freestyle, Kim Min-seop will swim in the men’s 200-meter butterfly and Choi Dong-yeol will represent Korea in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke.

Two Korean swimmers qualified for individual women’s events. Lee Eun-ji will race in the women’s 200-meter backstroke, and Kim Seo-young will race in the 200-meter individual medley. Both Lee, who will turn 18 years old a few days before the Olympics, and Kim, 30, also swam in Tokyo.

Korea also qualified for four relay events — the men’s 4x200-meter freestyle, 4x200-meter medley and 4x100-meter medley as well as the 4x100-meter mixed medley.

A handful of swimmers headed to Paris did not qualify for individual events but may swim in a relay. Relay positions have not fully been confirmed as teams select their fastest swimmers before heats begin.

Kim Young-hyun, Kim Ji-hun, Yang Jae-hoon, Lee Yoo-yeon, Lee Ho-jun and Heo Yun-kyung are part of the national squad as relay-only athletes.

Each day features multiple events, with competitors split into heats before the swimmers with the fastest times qualify for the finals.

Olympic pools are 50 meters long, and athletes dive into the pool off a block at the beginning of the race in three of the four strokes.

Backstroke swimmers hold on to bars below the block where they lunge off the wall to begin their race.

Relay races begin in the same manner, but each consecutive racer must dive off the block to start their portion of the race.

Hwang Sun-woo, right, and Kim Woo-min check their race records after the men's 200-meter freestyle final of the KB Financial Korea Swimming Championship at Gimcheon Indoor Swimming Pool in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang on March 26. [YONHAP]

For races longer than 50 meters, freestyle swimmers do a flip turn to change directions while a backstroke competitor will do the same after they turn from their back to their stomach.

For butterfly and breaststroke, competitors must touch the wall with two hands before usually rotating in the other direction.

The United States has dominated Olympic swimming, with its athletes winning more than 250 medals.

Korea has four medals in swimming at the Olympics, one gold and three silver — all belonging to Park Tae-hwan.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]