Final Medal Tally, 4 Big Things from the 2014 Asian Games

The 2014 Asian Games dominated much of the swimming news last week, as the final major international competition of the long course season brought some dominant times from Asia’s best swimmers, many of whom seem to be on the rise in the international swimming scene.

Here’s a quick lookback at the major highlights of the competition, starting with a look at the team medal totals.

What started out as a dominated effort for the Japanese men eventually swung back the other way, giving China the the top of the gold medal count, just like in 2010.

Early on, it was a battle of the Japanese men and Chinese women, both of whom swept their respective events on day 1. But the Chinese men started to cut into Japan’s success over the second half of the meet, and when the Chinese women remained nearly untouchable, the medal tally started to get more uneven.

What’s interesting is that Japan actually finished tied with China in overall medals, a huge improvement from 2010, when Japan earned 39 medals to China’s 54. That was thanks in large part to Kosuke Hagino, who was the unquestioned star of the meet with 6 individual medals, 3 of them gold. He also won gold as a member of the 4×200 free relay.

The difference, though, was that China bagged 22 golds, ten more than their Japanese rivals. That was led by a crushing effort from the Chinese women, who won 15 of the country’s gold medals including bruising wins in all three relays.

It was a disappointing Games for the host nation of South Korea, which saw national icon Park Tae-hwan struggle some in the pool that bears his name. Park took just a silver and two bronzes individually after winning three gold medals each in 2006 and 2010. That left Korea without an event win, dropping them below Singapore and Kazakhstan. Singapore got a 100 fly win from its rising star Joseph Schooling, and Kazakhstan, of course, shot up the medal tally thanks to a breaststroke sweep from breakout star Dimitry Balandin.

A quick recap of some major takeaways from the meet:

1. Kosuke Hagino is for real – but what should his strategy be for Kazan? No one following the swimming portion of these Asian Games could miss the rise of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino. He was everywhere, in a very literal sense – Hagino took seven total medals in events ranging from mid-distance freestyle to backstroke to IM. It’s common in swimming circles to refer to a versatile swimmer like Hagino as “Phelpsian,” but the diminutive racer is rapidly making an adjective out of his own name. Hagino won 6 of his medals in individual competition, more than even Phelps did in his amazing Beijing Olympic run. The swimmer who once said he wants to be like Phelps is becoming a legendary swimmer all his own.

But aside from the effusive praise, the biggest question for Hagino is how he’ll tweak or narrow his focus heading into next summer’s World Championships and the Olympics a year later. Will Hagino continue to emphasize his versatility with a wide-ranging event lineup? And would that decision cost him shots at gold medals due to the fatigue? The backstroke events in particular are so loaded internationally that Hagino might be better off dropping them to focus on his IMs and freestyles. The same could have been said about those free races a few weeks ago, but now that Hagino’s beaten Sun Yang and Park Tae-hwan, he might actually be the favorite at next summer’s Worlds. Hagino will have to make some big decisions in the coming months as to his training focus, and the decision might best be boiled down to quality vs. quantity: does he want to take multiple grabs at medals of all colors, or does he want to take just a couple shots at that alluring gold?

2. Sun Yang and Park Tae-hwan are in need of some tuning up: Sure, Hagino made some major strides in passing up Sun and Park to steal the spotlight of these games, but the sobering reality is that this was far from a strong showing for either swimmer. Coming off a tumultuous season and some good old fashioned trash-talking, China’s Sun was far from his usual self in the pool. He was slower than his 2010 times in both the 400 and 1500 and dropped out of the 800 free relay with a thumb injury. Though that injury may have affected his results some, he’s no longer the consensus pick to win the distance races at Worlds next summer, and he’ll have some proving himself to do in Kazan.

Park, meanwhile, was a bit of a head-scratcher in Incheon. He had a major home-pool advantage, with legions of adoring fans packing the stands and a brand-new pool with his name on it to compete in. But Park was well off his best, adding time in all of his freestyle races – including an astounding 7 seconds in the 400 – compared to his 2010 showing. In fact, Park was 5 full seconds slower in his 400 than he was a month earlier at Pan Pacs. It’s hard to argue that he struggled to hold a taper, as Park only swam a single event at Pan Pacs in what at the time appeared to be a tune-up meet for the Asian Games. Whatever the issue is with Park, he’s now got something in common with his Chinese rival in that both have an urgent need to get back on track before Kazan.

3. Dimitry Balandin is putting Kazakhstan back on the map: Balandin was virtually unknown heading into Incheon, but he chopped off time in droves to sweep all three breaststroke races. Most impressive was his 2:07.67 in the 200 breast, making him yet another man hovering around the world record. At this point, the 200 breaststrokers across the world feel like a flock of vultures, slowly circling the world record, and you get the impression that as soon as one man swoops in and breaks into the 2:06s, the rest will follow in bunches to the feeding frenzy. Balandin has a solid case for being that first guy, though. Based on his massive improvements over the past week, you could expect that he’s got even more room to grow moving forward. Don’t forget about Balandin by next summer, because he looks like a genuine threat in an increasingly crowded event.

4. Ye Shiwen needs some competition: China has a whole stable full of young stars on the female side, but none is as high-profile as world record-holding IMer Ye Shiwen. Ye cruised to wins in both IM races at these Asian Games, and it wasn’t close. She won the 400 by seven seconds and the 200 by a second and a half, not putting up spectacular times in either, but also not needing to. Just 18 years old, the reigning Olympic gold medalist probably won’t have to show her best stuff until Kazan next summer, but swimming fans everywhere are already excited to see if she can still drop the hammer on her closing freestyle leg, as she famously did in London, when she’s finally pushed for an IM victory.

A couple more standout swimmers:

• Xu Jiayu, China – Xu proved his ultra-fast backstroke swim from Chinese Nationals was no fluke, picking up silver in the 100 and 200 meter distances. Watch for him to join the crowded word backstroke fields in the coming years
• Joseph Schooling, Singapore – The American-based Texas Longhorn freshman continued his international breakout, picking up a huge win in the 100 fly and adding silver in the 50.
• Ning Zetao, China – China continues to improve drastically in the sprint freestyles, one area it’s been weak in for awhile. Ning doubled up in golds, joining a select group of men to break 48 in a textile suit and giving China the freestyle punch they need to compete in the medley relay.
• Shen Duo, China – The flip-side of that coin is Shen on the women’s side. She followed up a breakout Youth Olympic Games with dual golds here in the 100 and 200 frees. Shen looks like the real deal at just 17 years old, and should only develop more as her career continues.
• Kanako Watanabe, Satomi Suzuki, Japan – Japan continues to be ultra-strong in the breaststrokes, and Watanabe and Suzuki combined to win two of the three distances, the only discipline where China didn’t take home most of the golds. Watanabe was just a hair from making it a sweep with a silver in the 100 breast as well.