Kim Youngbeom Outlines World Record Goals For Korean 4×200 Free Relay: “Certainly doable”

While Great Britain and the U.S. are seen as the most likely countries to challenge the world record in the men’s 4×200 freestyle, it is a third nation that is first to come out and explicitly state their intentions to do so this summer.

In a recent interview with the Korea Times, 19-year-old Kim Youngbeom outlined his belief that the Korean quartet can break the longstanding world record this summer.

The teenager won the 100 freestyle at the Korean Championships this March in a time of 47.98, and delivered a heats swim of 47.96 to make it a pair of sub-48 performances. That marked a serious drop from his previous best, which stood at the 48.65 he swam in the heats at Junior Pan Pacs last summer, before winning the final in 48.66.

Although he will not be swimming the 200 free individually he will also join up with three veterans of the 4×200 free relay this summer as Korea aims to back up their silver medal from the 2024 world championships. Hwang SunWoo, Kim Woomin and Lee Hojoon have been on every Korean 4×200 relay since the Tokyo Olympics, and they have been a big part of Korea qualifying for the final in every competition since the 2022 World Championships.

The three have also delivered some sizzling splits over the years.

• Best Flying Start add-up of the trio: 4:28.43
• Flying split required to break WR: 1:45.11
• (Best Leadoff and flying start add-up of the trio): 4:27.79
• (Leadoff split required to break WR: 1:45.76)

A best-case add up from this period leaves them requiring the fourth swimming to split 1:45.11 – a time that would have been the joint-fourth-fastest flying split in the final in Paris. However, Youngbeom believes that it is within reach. Via translation, he stated that a time sub-1:45 is ‘certainly doable…I can go even faster than that. That’s why I’ve set this goal”.

That is a bold statement from the young swimmer, especially considering that Korea has struggled to add the final piece to this relay recently. Yang Jae-hoon has been the swimmer to join the aforementioned trio in finals so far, but was only 1:49.84 on the lead-off in Paris.

His best came leading off the national record-setting relay at the 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023). He was 1:46.83 there as Korea won gold in 7:01.73, beating China by nearly two seconds.

However, this announcement from Kim comes hot on the heels of a stunning 1:46.13 at the Gwangju National Championships last month. While we have not been able to find his previous best, this looks to be a huge best time for him – at a minimum his first time under 1:48. Considering he did not compete in the event at either junior Pan Pacs or Korean Trials in March, it is likely even more than that.

Results for this meet do not appear to be online, so we have been unable to see his time from the 100 free, but it’s unlikely that the competitors for Singapore would have been tapered that far in advance of the World Championships. Hwang Sun-woo was 1:45.85 in the 200 free at the meet, and also won the 100 fly in 52.34.

The Korea Times interview was with not just Kim but instead the full quartet that will represent Korea this summer in the relay. Hwang, who is the reigning World champion from Doha and has medalled in three consecutive championships, noted in the interview that ‘I don’t think we talked about this beforehand”, however also said that setting the World Record in the relay would be “a dream come true”.

“If we can each set our personal best times in splits, then we can definitely set the world record,” Hwang said. “Young-beom has the potential to get into the 1:44 range. He only started competing in the 200m freestyle this year and he’s been improving rapidly.”

Kim Woomin was also somewhat more measured than his more junior teammate: “I must say I am a bit shocked that he mentioned the world record here,” Woo-min said. “But his energy rubs off on all of us. And setting the world record isn’t just a pipe dream for us.”

Whilst the world record goal may be driven by Youngbeom, the drive to medal is one that permeates the team. Kim Woo-min noted that “The relay is taking up a huge part of our overall preparations…It was disappointing to come up just short of the gold at last year’s competition, but it felt great to stand on the podium together and we all want to enjoy that feeling again.”

Hwang Sunwoo, the most successful Korean swimmer since Park Tae-Hwan, felt much the same way: “As good as individual medals are, I really enjoyed reaching the podium with my team last year. The relay brings us all together and I love our camaraderie.”

Possible Lineup Combinations

At the last three competitions Korea has switched how they order their swimmers, moving Hwang Sun-woo from the leadoff leg to anchor instead. That worked out for them at the Asian Games in 2023, where they knocked more than two seconds off their brand new National record. In total, the record has come down by nearly ten seconds in the last four years.

They added another 7:01-point swim at the 2024 World Championships, where Korea finished second in 7:01.94, but fell to sixth in 7:07.26 at the Paris Olympics.

The World record stands at the supersuited 6:58.55 the U.S. team of Michael Phelps, Ricky Behrens, David Walters and Ryan Lochte swam back in 2009. The textile best is owned by Great Britain, who went 6:58.58 at the Tokyo Olympic Games to set the European Record. The U.S. are carrying significant momentum into this relay after finishing second to Team GB in the last two summers, owning an add-up of 6:58.78 from U.S. Nationals and will have an incredibly deep team to pick from.

Of note, Korea’s performance from the Asian Games in 2023 stands as the 16th-quickest time ever in the event.

If all four swimmers can hit their best form in Singapore they could certainly be in the mix with the two favorites. They three stalwarts for Korea are yet to all do so on the same relay though, and having four swimmers all be on top form at the same time is a big ask – both the World Record and Great Britain’s recent swims would be significantly faster if all four swimmers had been on their lifetime bests in the relay.

Another aspect to consider is that the leadoff leg is something of a graveyard on the 4×200 free. This leg is often a ‘race-within-a-race’, one that cannot definitively win the race but can certainly damage the team’s prospects if the first 150m is overswum.

Out of elite swimmers leading off major finals relays since 2021, defining elite as someone either with a best time sub-1:46 at the time or who went 1:45-point on their leadoff, only 28.6% (8/28) were within half a second of their best. There were 17 sub-1:46 leadoffs in total, but spread over five finals that is an average of only 3.4, and only two leadoffs have been sub-1:45.

What this highlights is the challenge facing Korea to challenge both that World Record and the duo of the U.S. and Great Britain. Korea would need to be at their best and then some on all four legs, in a relay that historically has not been forgiving of missteps.

Kim is certainly confident in both himself and his teammates in this relay – perhaps that fearlessness is exactly what’s required to push them to the top.