During the 2024 World Aquatics Championships held in Doha, the South Korean swimming team made history by winning a total of five medals, marking a significant improvement over their previous record.
The team also achieved their first-ever relay medal in the championships, while Korean divers contributed to the medal tally as well.
At the Doha event, the swimmers from South Korea won a total of 5 medals, which included 2 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals. This achievement is significantly better than the nation’s previous record.
Prior to the Doha event, S. Korea had won a total of 6 medals in the entire history of the World Championships. Out of these medals, there were 2 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze.
Until last year, Park Tae-hwan (34) was the only Korean swimmer to have won a gold medal at the World Championships.
However, at the Doha championship, S. Korean swimming team garnered two champions. Kim Woo-min (22) won the men’s 400m freestyle, setting a personal best time of 3 minutes and 42.71 seconds. He became the first Korean to win a gold medal at the World Championships since Park’s victory in 2011, which was 13 years ago.
Hwang Sun-woo, a 20-year-old Korean swimmer, won the gold medal in the men’s 200m freestyle at the World Championships with a time of 1 minute and 44.75 seconds.
This was a historic moment as it marked the first time Korea won two gold medals at the World Championships. Hwang also made history by surpassing Park’s personal record of 2 gold and 1 bronze medals to become the S. Korean swimmer with the most individual medals in the history of the World Championships.
Hwang had already won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle at Budapest in 2022 with a time of 1:44.47 and a bronze medal at Fukuoka in 2023 with a time of 1:44.42.
With his win in Doha, he completed his collection of individual event medals (gold, silver, and bronze) and added his first relay medal, bringing his total World Championships medal count to 4 (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze).
Hwang and Kim, along with their team members Lee Ho-joon (22), Yang Jae-hoon (25), and Lee Yoo-yeon (23), won the silver medal (7:01.94) in the men’s 800m freestyle relay.
They narrowly missed becoming the first Asian team to win the men’s 800m freestyle relay at the World Championships, being surpassed by China (7:01.84) by just 0.1 seconds. However, the S. Korean team achieved the remarkable feat of winning the country’s first relay medal in World Championships history.
S. Korean divers also showed its competitiveness in Doha.
Kim Su-ji, who had previously won Korea’s first diving medal in the FINA World Championships in Gwangju in 2019, added two more medals to her collection. She secured a bronze medal in the women’s 3m springboard individual event and teamed up with Lee Jae-kyung to win bronze in the mixed 3m springboard synchronized diving event.
