SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s two biggest swimming medal hopefuls at the upcoming Paris Olympics have aced their tests ahead of the big competition. Hwang Sun-woo collected two gold medals, one each in the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle races, at the third leg of the Mare Nostrum Swim Tour in Monaco over the weekend.
At the same competition, Kim Woo-min set a personal best in winning the men’s 400m freestyle title.
Hwang, 21, is the reigning world champion in the 200m freestyle. He won silver and bronze in the same race at the 2022 and 2023 world championships, respectively. Kim, 22, won the 2024 world title in the 400m freestyle. Hwang and Kim, who also gobbled up multiple gold medals at the Asian Games last fall, will be out to prove their worth against the best of the best in Paris, and their recent performances should set them up nicely for the Olympics, starting in late July.
Only one South Korean swimmer, Park Tae-hwan, has won an Olympic medal. Park won the men’s 400m freestyle gold and the 200m freestyle silver in 2008. Four years later, Park grabbed silver medals in those two races.
On Sunday in Monaco, Hwang won the 200m freestyle title in 1:46.23. It was nearly two seconds off Hwang’s South Korean record time of 1:44.40, set in Hwang’s gold medal-winning race at the Asian Games. Last week, Hwang had finished second at the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum series in 1:45.68.
Both Hwang and the Korea Swimming Federation (KSF) blamed the slow time on poor water quality at the Monaco pool that affected the swimmer’s visibility.
Fellow South Korean Lee Ho-joon finished second in 1:46.63.
“I did my best under the circumstances. And I was happy to stand on the podium with Ho-joon,” Hwang said in a statement put out by the KSF. “I think I’ve done well in my tests ahead of the Olympics.”
Lee isn’t considered a medal contender in individual races, but he will be a member of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team, alongside Hwang, Kim Woo-min and Kim Young-hyun.
Earlier in Monaco, Hwang won the 100m freestyle gold medal with a competition record time of 47.91 seconds.
“I am happy to be back in the 47-second range and also to set the competition record,” Hwang said. “I’ve gained a lot of confidence as I build up for the Paris Olympics.”
Hwang’s main event is the 200m freestyle, where David Popovici of Romania will be one of his rivals in Paris. Popovici beat Hwang for first place in Barcelona in both the 100m and 200m freestyle races but did not compete in Monaco.
For this year, Lukas Martens of Germany owns the best 200m freestyle time at 1:44.14, followed by Matthew Richards of Britain (1:44.69) and Popovici (1:44.74). Hwang and Duncan Scott of Britain are tied for fourth at 1:44.75. Kim Woo-min grabbed the 400m freestyle title in Monaco on Saturday in 3:42.42, improving on his personal record by 0.29 second. Kim had also won the 400m free in Barcelona last week, though his time had been 3:44.81.
Park owns the national record at 3:41.53.
Kim’s time in Monaco puts him fourth in the world rankings for this year, behind Martens (3:40.33), Elijah Winnington of Australia (3:41.41) and Samuel Short of Australia (3:41.64). At the world championship in February, Winnington and Martens finished second and third, respectively, behind Kim.
Kim’s record-setting performance is more remarkable given that he’d jumped straight into these meets after weeks of hard training, rather than taking a breather to rest his body.
“Physically and mentally, I felt quite a bit of pressure. I still ended up with a great time because I concentrated on preparing for the Paris Olympics,” Kim said in a statement released by the KSF. “I was surprised to have set my personal record despite not being in my optimal form.”
Kim added the next several weeks leading up to Paris will be “the most difficult stretch” for him.
“I am excited and nervous at the same time,” he added. “I will be grinding out there, but I also want to enjoy the process as much as possible.”
