Only one world championship bronze medal… Swimming generation replacement, still ripples?
It is also painful in the process of another generation change. At the 2025 World Swimming Federation World Championship, which ended on the 3rd (Korea time), only Kim Woo -min (24, Gangwon -do Office) was the only podium in the solo exhibition. He won a bronze medal in a men’s freestyle 400m. Last year, the rankings were lowered in one year after the world’s highest performance in the world championship, ranking eighth in the Doha tournament. The results were unfortunate, but on the other hand, there were significant achievements.
Korean swimming, which ‘Marine Boy’ Park Tae -hwan has been dragging, has been steadily replacing generations. Hwang Sun -woo (22, Gangwon -do Office) emerged as a ‘New Marine Boy’ in the 2022 Budapest Competition and emerged as a ‘New Marine Boy’ in 11 years. At the Doha tournament last year, Kim Woo -min won the world’s 400m gold medal for the first time since Park Tae -hwan. In Singapore, however, Hwang Sun -woo closed the competition with the ‘solo no medal’ due to the failure to advance to the 100m finals, the main sport, the main sport. Kim Woo -min also had to be satisfied with the 400m bronze medal.
Instead, the significant results were obtained to see the growth of the next runner. Ji Yu -chan (23, Daegu City Hall) left a big footsteps of the Asian record (21 seconds 66) in the men’s freestyle 50m semi -finals. Immediately after the tournament, Ji Yu -chan vowed to say, “We will go beyond my limits with better records in major international competitions.” It is also encouraging that the record record of the youngest Kim Young -bum (19, Gangwon -do Office), who was the first English, was the fastest.
At the World Congress, the expansion of competitiveness was also expanded. In the 400m Korean men’s 400m, he wrote a new history to advance to the final for the first time in the world championship. It is the second time that the Korean swimming team won the world championship finals after the 800m male Gye -young. Although he has won silver medals in the Hangzhou Asian Games, the finals are meaningful in the competition where the world participates. Lee Joo -ho (30, Seogwipo City Hall), who also set a Korean record (1 minute 55 seconds 70) in the men’s backing 200m semi -final, said, “It is important to say that Korea’s first to advance to the finals.
It is also said that the world’s strongest people participated in the Paris Olympics, and the world’s strongest players should be a chance to check the world championships in the 2026 Asian Games (Japan-Nagoya) and the 2028 Olympics (LA). One example is a male Gyeyoung 800m. The male Gye Young 800m won the world’s highest performance (6th place) at the Paris Olympics following the last gold medal in the world championship.
By Nam Ji -eun, reporter myviollet@hani.co.kr
