World Championship Gold, Silver and Bronze Completed... Hwang Sun-woo, Now an Olympic Medal
Winner of the 200m freestyle at the Doha Games… My first personal long course world championship gold medal, a medal I narrowly missed at the Tokyo Olympics... In Paris, ‘the podium is visible’
Hwang Seon-woo (20, Gangwon Provincial Office), who started the new year of 2024 with field training in Australia, said before leaving for Australia last month, "I don't have only gold medals at the World Championships, but I want to collect all gold, silver, and bronze."
Hwang Sun-woo, who took second place after David Popovic (Romania) in the 200m freestyle at the 2022 Budapest World Championships and gave Korean swimming the first World Championships management medal since Park Tae-hwan (400m freestyle gold medalist) at the 2011 Shanghai Games, won the Fukuoka Games last year.
In the event, he lost 1st and 2nd place to Matthew Richards and Tom Dean (Great Britain) and won the bronze medal.
At the Fukuoka Games, Hwang Sun-woo, who was proud of the bronze medal he earned, saying it was "a color I don't have" even though he was in first place at the end of the race and was defeated by Richards and Dean, finally achieved the 'golden victory' he had longed for. 카지노사이트
Sunwoo Hwang won the gold medal with a time of 1 minute 44.75 seconds in the 200m freestyle final at the 2024 International Aquatics Federation World Aquatics Championships held at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on the 14th (Korean time).
This is Korea's second gold medal in this competition, following Kim Woo-min (22, Gangwon Provincial Office), who participated in the 400m freestyle.
Hwang Sun-woo, who only won gold in the 200m freestyle at the 2021 and 2022 short course (25m) World Championships, won his first gold medal at the long course (50m) World Championships, which is an Olympic standard.
Hwang Seon-woo, who saved his strength by taking 11th place out of 67 people with 1 minute 46.99 seconds in the preliminaries and 2nd place out of 16 people with 1 minute 45.15 seconds in the semifinals, gradually increased his pace and gave all his strength in the finals.
Hwang Seon-woo, who had completed intense training in Australia, looked back and said, "It was the hardest two weeks of my swimming life."
He cut through the water and touched the touchpad without showing any signs of fatigue.
Although there are still 100m freestyle and 800m relay races left with his teammates, Sunwoo Hwang's eyes are now turned to the Paris Olympics in five months, where he will compete against the world's best athletes.
This year's World Championships were held so close to the Olympics that many top athletes were absent.
Still, there is no change in the fact that Hwang Sun-woo proved that he has the competitiveness to compete in the Olympics by standing on top of the world championship podium.
The Olympics is the starting point for Hwang Sun-woo, who has grown into a representative Korean swimming athlete, and the destination that he must aim for until the end.
Unlike many athletes who were called 'swimming geniuses' and then disappeared, Hwang Sun-woo showed that his talent was unique at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
Sunwoo Hwang, who was 18 years old at the time, set a new Korean record with 47.97 seconds in the 100m freestyle preliminaries at the Tokyo Olympics and advanced to the semifinals in 6th place overall. In the semifinals, he set a new Asian record by shortening his time to 47.56 seconds and won a ticket to the finals in 4th place.
However, as he was not yet accustomed to controlling his pace, he finished the race in 5th place, disappointing as his record fell behind in the final with 47.82 seconds.
The 200m freestyle event at the Tokyo Olympics was even more disappointing.
He placed 1st overall in the preliminaries with a time of 1 minute 44.62 seconds, a new Korean record and a new world junior record, and advanced to the finals with a time of 1 minute 45.53 seconds in the semifinals, taking 6th place overall.
He finished in 7th place in the final with a time of 1 minute 45.26 seconds, which was worse than the preliminaries.
If he had replicated the 1 minute 44.62 seconds he recorded in the preliminaries in the finals, he could have won a bronze medal, but his lack of experience held him back.
Now, three years later, Hwang Sun-woo has grown into a world-class 200m freestyle athlete who has gone through all the hardships.
After the Tokyo Olympics, he won medals at all three World Championships, and especially conquered the podium at the Doha Games held ahead of the Olympics.
A tougher competition than the World Championships awaits him in the 200m freestyle event at the Paris Olympics to be held in July this year.
Popovich, who had a brief rowing season last year, is planning to sharpen his skills, and Dindo Hwang Sun-woo, the gold medalist in this event at the Tokyo Olympics, is a competitor he must overcome.
Hwang Sun-woo, who has gained confidence through the Doha Games, dreams of becoming the first Korean swimmer to reach the Olympic podium since Park Tae-hwan (200, 400m freestyle silver medalist) at the 2012 London Olympics.
