2026 Korean National Team Trials: OLY Medalist Kim Woomin Takes Two Golds Thus Far

2026 KOREAN NATIONAL TEAM TRIALS

• Monday, March 23rd – Saturday, March 28th
• Gimcheon Indoor Swimming Pool
• LCM (50m)
• Results

The 2026 Korean National Team Trials got underway this week from the Gimcheon Indoor Swimming Pool. Swimmers are vying for slots on the nation’s roster for this year’s prestigious Asian Games, on the books for September in Japan.

Reigning Olympic bronze medalist Kim Woomin wasted no time making his presence known, with the 24-year-old topping the men’s 800m free podium in a time of 7:46.91.

Registering the sole time of the field under the 7:50 barrier, Kim held a healthy advantage over Kim Junwoo who represented the next-closest swimmer in 7:51.46.

Kim is the current Korean national record holder in this men’s 8free, courtesy of the 7:46.03 he notched to take gold at the 2023 Asian Games. That means his performance here was less than a second outside his best-ever en route to taking over slot #3 in the season’s world rankings.

Kim also topped the men’s 1500m free podium, producing a time of 14:54.38.

That once again held off Kim Junwoo who touched in 15:09.97 as the next-closest competitor.

Kim’s gold medal-worthy result easily beat the 15:01.07 he clocked for silver at the 2023 Asian Games and also undercut his former personal best of 14:58.03 produced last year. He remains Korean’s #2 performer of all time, sitting only behind Olympic medalist Park Tae Hwan‘s national record of 14:47.38 from 2012.

Kim now ranks 6th in the world at the moment.

The men’s 100m freestyle was on the subdued side, with no swimmer clearing the 48-second threshold.

Kim Youngbeom was the fastest competitor, clinching gold in 48.17 in a narrow victory over Olympian and world champion Hwang Sunwoo.

Hwang settled for silver just .13 later in 48.30 and Lee Yuyeon wrapped up bronze in 49.03.

Hwang and Kim represent two of the only three Korean swimmers ever to have hit times in the 47-second zone. Hwang’s PB rests at the 47.56 from the 2020 Olympic Games, with Youngbeom having been as swift as 47.39 in his career. That latter mark established the Korean national record.

Park Seonkwan was also under the barrier in 2019 with a mark of 47.97.

On the women’s side, Lee Eun-ji got it done for gold in the 200m back, stopping the clock at 2:09.82 as the only swimmer under 2:10.

Choi Minseo was next to the wall in 2:10.44, while Kim Ye-eun rounded out the podium in 2:11.73.

Eun-ji’s effort was just off the 2:09.75 outing, which rendered her the 2023 Asian Games bronze medalist.

She’s been as quick as 2:08.29 in her career, the national record she posted at last year’s World University Games for bronze.

The sole national record so far of this competition went down in the women’s 800m free, as Han Da-kyung lowered her lifetime best en route to topping the podium.

Han turned in a time of 8:35.62 to handily defeat the field and beat her previous PB and NR of 8:38.32 logged in 2024.

Additional Notes

• Park Jung-hoon won the men’s 200m butterfly in a mark of 1:56.35, getting the edge over Kim Minseop who touched less than half a second later in 1:56.66. Hwangbo Junheon bagged the bronze in 1:57.16. Kim is the current national record holder in this event after delivering a PB of 1:54.95 two years ago.
• The women’s 100m free saw Yeonkyung Hur produce a winning result of 54.96, a time not terribly behind the 54.49 national record she established in 2023 as a 17-year-old.
• Kim Yun-hee notched an effort of 2:08.74 to grab the women’s 200m fly gold ahead of Park Soojin who was also under the 2:10 barrier. Park settled for silver in 2:09.88 as Lee Heu-eun rounded out the podium in 2:10.77.