History-making Hwang Sun-woo and the golden generation of Olympic medals
AG team wins first ever gold medal in 800m freestyle relay
Showcasing their impressive growth, they also set an Asian record
The “golden generation”
Of Korean swimming, led by Hwang Sun-woo (20-Gangwon Provincial Office), 스포츠토토 has won the
country’s first-ever gold medal in a management team event at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.
The South Korean swimming team of Yang Jae-hoon (25-Gangwon Provincial Government), Lee Ho-joon
(22-Daegu Metropolitan City Government), Kim Woo-min (22) and Hwang Sun-woo (20) were the first to
touch the touchpad in an Asian record time of 7:01.73 in the men’s 800m freestyle relay final at the
Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Aquatic Sports Arena in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China on Friday.
Neither China
Who were considered the favorites, nor Japan, who had only missed out on gold in this event at the
previous Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010, were able to match the Koreans.
China, led by Wang Sun and Fan Zhanle, who set Asian records in the men’s 200-meter individual medley
and 100-meter freestyle, respectively, finished second in 7:03.40. Japan won the bronze medal in 7:06.29.
This is the first time Korean swimming has ever won gold in a management team event at an Asian Games. The previous best result was a silver medal.
Lee Sang-joon, Woo Chul, Woo Won-ki and Bang Seung-hoon
Won silver in the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1994, and Park Tae-hwan, Park
Sun-kwan, Choi Kyu-woong and Jung Doo-hee won the second silver medal in the men’s 400-meter medley relay in Guangzhou in 2010.
On the women’s side, Korea has won silver medals in the 400-meter medley relay (Kim Eun-jung, Myung
Kyung-hyun, Lee Moon-hee, Eun-joo) in Beijing in 1990 and the 400-meter freestyle relay (Lee Da-lin,
Yang Ji-won, Ahn Se-hyun, Kim Mi-so) in Incheon in 2014.
The record was even more dazzling.
They shaved 0.53 seconds off the previous Asian record (7:02.26) set by Japan at the 2009 World
Championships in Rome, before polyurethane full-body swimsuits were banned.
The Korean record (7:04.07), set at the Fukuoka World Championships in July, 토토 was shaved off by 2.34 seconds in less than two months.
Winning the gold medal in the medley relay at the Asian Games is even more meaningful as the team’s
performance is based on the growth of the entire swimming program.
In particular, the 800-meter freestyle relay team didn’t rely on a single star, but rather on four swimmers who performed evenly and dominated to win gold.
This was the result of strategic investments by the Korean Swimming Federation, as well as the
emergence of a number of promising young athletes centered around the stars Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min.
Hwang Sun-woo
Was a major breakthrough for South Korean swimming, which hadn’t seen a major star since Park Tae-hwan changed the sport’s history.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, he broke the Korean record in the men’s 200m freestyle (1:44.62) and set a new Asian record in the 100m freestyle semifinals (47.56), becoming the first Asian swimmer to reach an Olympic men’s 100m freestyle final in 65 years since Dani Atsushi (JPN) at Melbourne 1956.
Since then, Hwang has become a world-class swimmer.
Last year, he won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle at the Budapest World Championships in a Korean record time of 1:44.47, and this year he won a bronze medal at the Fukuoka World Championships, lowering the Korean record to 1:44.42.
With the emergence of Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min has shown signs of growth in the men’s middle and long distances.
Seeing the potential for Asian Games gold in the 800-meter freestyle relay, where the duo can anchor, the KFA put together a special strategic development squad of the top four men’s freestyle swimmers from last year’s and this year’s national team selections to train in Australia.
The results of the training paid off at last year’s World Championships in Budapest.
At last year’s World Championships in Budapest
The team of Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon and Lee Yoo-yeon (Korea Gymnastics) set a new Korean record in the 800-meter freestyle relay preliminaries with a time of 7:08.49 and finished fourth overall. It was South Korea’s first-ever team final at a World Championships.
After making history, the team finished sixth in the final. Less than a day later, they broke the Korean record again with a time of 7:06.93.
At this year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, the team of Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, Yang Jae-hoon, and Lee Ho-joon set a new Korean record of 7:06.82 in the preliminaries and qualified for the final in sixth place overall. In the final, less than a day later, they broke the Korean record by 2.75 seconds, touching the touchpad in 7:04.07. The final ranking was 6th.
The same team with the same members, just in different alphabetical order, set another record at the Asian Games.
In addition to the team performance, the 800-meter freestyle relay swimmers have also shown improvement in their individual events.
Hwang Sun-woo continues to break the Korean record in his main event, the 200-meter freestyle.
Kim Woo-min
Who had a personal best of 3:45.59 in the 400m freestyle before this year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, improved his time to 3:44.52 in the preliminaries and 3:43.92 in the final.
Lee Ho-joon
Also reached the final of the 200m freestyle alongside Hwang Sun-woo at the World Championships in Fukuoka, and also made the final of the 100m freestyle, which is not his main event at the Asian Games.
The meteoric rise of Korea’s 800-meter freestyle relay team has raised hopes of a first-ever team medal at Paris 2024.
The team has shaved 6.76 seconds off their time in just two years.
With all four members of the squad just entering their prime, there’s plenty of potential for further improvement if they prepare as well as they have in the past.
If you look at the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay final at this year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, the time they set that day was already a medal-winning time. Great Britain won the final in 6:59.08, the United States took silver in 7:00.02, and the bronze medal went to Australia in 7:02.13.
With the gold medal, all of the relay swimmers will now be able to resolve their military service issues, giving them more momentum to train and compete.
The eyes of the ‘golden generation’ now turn to Paris 2024. If they continue their upward trend, a first team medal in Olympic history is not out of the question. 스포츠토토링크
