2024 KOREAN OLYMPIC TRIALS
- Friday, March 22nd – Wednesday, March 27th, Korea
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
- Results
- Livestream
The penultimate night of action of the 2024 Korean Olympic Trials saw history made on the men’s side.
For the first time ever, two Korean males qualified for an Olympic Games in the 200m freestyle event.
World champion Hwang Sunwoo led the way with a winning effort of 1:44.90. That checked in as the 8th-swiftest time of the 20-year-old’s career, one which boasts the national record of 1:44.40 produced at last year’s Asian Games.
Kim Woomin, reigning world champion in the 400m freestyle, was next to the wall in 1:45.68 to punch his ticket to Paris.
His outing represented his first-ever foray under the 1:46 barrier, crushing his previous personal best of 1:46.06 logged last November.
Lee Hojoon rounded out the podium in 1:46.42 while Kim Younghyeon placed 4th in 1:47.37.
Splits are not available at this time.
Hwang already ranks #1 globally, courtesy of his PB while Kim now checks in as the 9th-best performer on the season.
History-wise, Kim Woomin remains the 4th-fastest Korean in history while Lee now slots himself as the 5th-best.
Top 5 Korean Men’s LCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Hwang Sunwoo – 1:44.40, 2023
- Park Taehwan – 1:44.80, 2010
- Lee Hojoon – 1:45.56, 2023
- Kim Woomin – 1:45.68, 2024
- Lee Hojoon – 1:46.42, 2024
The Korean Swimming Federation (KSF) High-Performance Committee will ultimately decide who and how many to nominate for the men’s 4x200m free relay.
In Doha this year, Korea earned its first World Championships medal in the 4x200m free relay, capturing silver in a heated battle with China to the final touch. China grabbed gold in 7:01.84 and Korea fell just .10 behind that in 7:01.94 as the runners-up.
Squad members for Korea in that race included Yang Jaehoon (1:47.78), Kim Woomin (1:44.93), Hojoon (1:45.47) and Hwang (1:43.76).
Cho Sung Jae made noise in the men’s 200m breaststroke this evening.
The 23-year-old clocked a time of 2:09.53 to top the podium, dipping under the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 2:09.68 in the process. He’ll be representing Korea at his 2nd Olympic Games after having raced in Tokyo.
Finally, in the non-Olympic event of the women’s 50m back, 14-year-old Kim Seungwon produced a personal best to establish a new national record.
The teen touched in 28.00 to shave .17 off the previous Korean standard of 28.17 Yu Hyeonji put on the books in 2016.
Korean Olympic Qualifiers Through Day 5 of Trials
- Kim Woomin – Men’s 1500m free, 14:58.03; 200m free, 1:45.68
- Lee Juho – Men’s 200m back, 1:56.52; 100m back, 53.54 *From Asian Games
- Lee Eunji – Women’s 200m back, 2:09.88
- Choi Dong-yeol – Men’s 100m breast, 59.28 *From Asian Games
- Kim Minseop – Men’s 200m fly, 1:54.95
- Kim Seoyeong – Women’s 200m IM, 2:10.36 *From Asian Games
- Hwang Sunwoo – Men’s 100m free, 48.28; 200m free, 1:44.90
- Cho Sung Jae – Men’s 200m breast, 2:09.53
Korea is in a position to stun some of the medal favorites. I don’t think they will touch GBR or the US yet…but I do think they can get bronze at the games with the way they have been looking the past 12 months.
How did Kim Junwoo do? At Junior Worlds in 2023, he went 1:48.2/3:50/7:57/15:01 in the 200-1500 frees. They’re starting to develop options to rest their one or two of their swimmers for prelims.
1.49 in the 200, 4.02 in the 400, 7.55 in the 800, 15.22 in the 1500
So, not too well outside of the 800
Yang (1.46.8), Hwang (1.43.7), Kim (1.44.5), Lee (1.44.5) – Best flat-start and flying splits puts Korea at 6.59.5; Building very nicely. They’re not far off the best US and Australian quartets (on 3 best splits + fastest remaining flat-starter of those who appear most likely to make each team), which stand at 6.58low (USA) and 6.59low (Australia). GBR stand at 6.55low (lol) and China 7mins (caveat, I think I probably missed some Chinese splits + Wang Shun is hard to factor as he hasn’t really had flying splits), so this is a real opportunity for a Korean relay to make history. I’ll be rooting for them to grab a medal.
If GBR can get all 4 swimmers firing at once we’re going to see an insane time. It’s really rare to see all 4 swimmers go close to their best splits in this relay though – even the existing WR has a relatively slow leadoff from MP.
Indeed, I won’t be holding my breath for a 6.55, this was just illustrative. It would be a tragedy if this quarter doesn’t break the WR eventually though – It’s so far within their ability.
That lead-off from Phelps was 1.44.49 and it does look slow given that it was at the height of the supersuits era and he had already gone 1.42.96 in winning gold at the 2008 Olympics.
The problem for Korea (and for China too) in Olympics is that they don’t have enough depth to rest one or two swimmers in their heat swim so that they can rest for the final just like UK, USA or even Australia.
Hwang is remarkably consistent in the 2free
Still waiting for him to go 1:43 and I think he’s more than capable of it but he’s gotta have the a nearly perfect swim for it maybe it’ll happen in Paris I hope?
good for them and very easy to root for. i can’t say i was surprised, both of these men have been swimming well as of late
Splits for the top 4
HWANG Sunwoo – 00:24.56/00:51.02(26.46)/01:18.01(26.99)/01:44.90(26.89)
KIM Woomin – 00:24.58/00:51.47(26.89)/01:18.66(27.19)/01:45.68(27.02)
LEE Hojoon – 00:24.69/00:51.46(26.77)/01:18.97(27.51)/01:46.43(27.46)
KIM Younghyeon – 00:25.42/00:52.71(27.29)/01:20.15(27.44)/01:47.37(27.22)
Thank you Retta!
Do you have any background on Kim Younghyeon – I.e. age, development? I haven’t seen him racing before and had assumed Kim Junwoo or Yang Jaehoon would be the most likely 4th man for Korea, but 1.47.3 is promising.
He was born in 2004, who used to be a distance swimmer. From last year to now, he has lower his 2 record by 6 seconds.
Thanks. Very interesting that his background is similar to Pan Zhanle – moving from endurance to shorter distances. Good luck to your Korean team in Paris.
KIM WOOMIN 3:41 INCOMING WATCH OUT PARK TAE HWAN
Are the Korean m4x200 going to train in Australia again to prepare for Paris just like last year?
Nah mate it’s too far, the jetlag will destroy dem