South Korean Swimmer Hwang Clinches Gold in Men’s 200m Freestyle at World Championships

Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Province), the ace of Korean swimming, showed a golden performance in the men’s 200m freestyle at the World Championships.

On the 14th (Korean time), Hwang Sun-woo touched the pad first in the men’s 200m freestyle final at the 2024 International Swimming Federation World Championships held at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, with a time of 1 minute and 44.75 seconds.

He outpaced Danas Rapsys (28, Lithuania) by 0.30 seconds, who finished the race in 1 minute and 45.05 seconds.

Luke Hobson (20, USA) came in third with a time of 1 minute and 45.26 seconds.

Hwang Sun-woo, who started first with a reaction time of 0.62 seconds, maintained the lead by turning at 24.24 seconds at 50m and 50.57 seconds at 100m.

Although he gave up the lead to Hobson at the 150m mark, he increased his speed and secured first place by swimming the last 50m in 26.89 seconds.

The last 50m records for Rapsys and Hobson were 26.92 seconds and 27.81 seconds, respectively.

World champion Hwang Sun-woo said in English right after the match, “I didn’t expect to win, but I did my best and finally did it. I thank my coaches and teammates for their support.”

David Popovici (Romania), who beat Hwang Sun-woo in Budapest in 2022, Matthew Richards and Tom Dean (both from the UK), who came first and second in the Fukuoka competition in 2023, did not participate in the 200m freestyle in Doha.

Hwang Sun-woo was touted as the most likely winner and indeed became the men’s 200m freestyle champion at the World Championships.

Hwang Sun-woo, the first Korean swimmer to win two consecutive World Championship medals – silver (1 minute and 44.47 seconds) in Budapest in 2022 and bronze (1 minute and 44.42 seconds) in Fukuoka in 2023 – stepped onto the podium for the third time in Doha.

His third individual World Championship medal shined golden.

It was also the first time a Korean swimmer won a gold medal in the 200m freestyle.

With Hwang Sun-woo’s performance, Korean swimming won its fourth gold medal in World Championships history.

Previously, Park Tae-hwan (34) won Korea’s first gold medal in the men’s 400m freestyle at the 2007 Melbourne Championships and also won gold in the same event at the 2011 Shanghai Championships.

Kim Woo-min (22, Gangwon Province), who has led the renaissance of Korean swimming along with Hwang Sun-woo, won the men’s 400m freestyle on the 12th and became the first Korean gold medalist since Park Tae-hwan 13 years ago.

With Hwang Sun-woo standing at the highest point on the podium in the 200m freestyle, Korean swimming won more than two gold medals in a single World Championship for the first time.

With Hwang Sun-woo’s gold medal, the total number of medals won by Korean swimming in the World Championships increased to 10 (4 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze).

Having won three World Championship medals, Hwang Sun-woo climbed to the top of the list of Korean swimmers with the most medals, along with Park Tae-hwan (2 gold, 1 bronze) and diver Kim Su-ji (3 bronze).

Last year, Hwang Sun-woo won a bronze medal at the Fukuoka World Championships in July and harvested six medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze) at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September.

He won the 200m freestyle at the Hangzhou Asian Games with a time of 1 minute and 44.40 seconds, breaking his own Korean record again.

The Olympics are the only blank space left in Hwang Sun-woo’s medal resume.

Hwang Sun-woo, the World Champion, will participate in the Paris Olympics, which opens in July.

There are more opportunities to add medals at the Doha World Championships.

Hwang Sun-woo will compete in the individual 100m freestyle and the men’s 800m relay.

Although he has not yet won a medal in the 100m freestyle at the World Championships, swimming media SwimSwam predicted that the top three finishers in this event would be Pan Zhanle (China), Alessandro Miressi (Italy), and Hwang Sun-woo.

The men’s 100m freestyle preliminaries will be held on the afternoon of the 14th (Korean time), the semi-finals on the morning of the 15th, and the finals on the 16th.

The men’s 800m relay preliminary round will be held on the afternoon of the 16th and the final on the morning of the 17th.

The Korean team, consisting of Hwang Sun-woo, Kim Woo-min, Lee Ho-joon (22, Jeju City Hall), and Lee Yoo-yeon (23, Goyang City Hall), is considered a contender for the championship in this competition.

If Hwang Sun-woo, who has already won gold in his main event, the 200m freestyle, wins just one more medal, he will become the Korean swimmer with the most individual medals in the World Championships’ history.

If he steps onto the podium in the 100m freestyle and the 800m relay, he will break the record for the most medals won by a Korean in a single competition (currently held by Park Tae-hwan and Kim Su-ji with 2 each).