Hwang Sun-woo Challenges Medal Contention After Breaking Asian Record... Final Today

Breaking New Records Daily and Rising
Competing with Dressel, Kolesnikov, and Mirecki

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Hwang Sun-woo (18, Seoul Physical Education High School), who broke the Asian record (47.56 seconds) in the men's 100m freestyle, is challenging for his first Olympic medal. He will compete in the men's 100m freestyle final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan at 11:37 a.m. on the 29th. This is Hwang Sun-woo's second final race in this tournament, following the men's 200m freestyle. He will compete in lane 6 against world-class swimmers such as Caleb Dressel (USA), Kliment Kolesnikov (Russia), Alessandro Miressi (Italy), and David Popovici (Romania).

Hwang Sun-woo has been setting new records day after day on his first Olympic stage. On the 25th, he set a Korean record (1:44.62) in the men's 200m freestyle heats, and on the 28th, he broke the Asian record of 47.65 seconds held by Ning Zetao (China) by 0.09 seconds in the 100m freestyle semifinals. The 100m freestyle record is also a world junior record. He surpassed the 47.57 seconds set by Russia's Andrey Minakov in October last year by 0.01 seconds.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

An Asian swimmer reaching the Olympic 100m freestyle final is the first time in 65 years since Atsushi Dani (Japan, 7th place) at the 1956 Melbourne Games. If Hwang Sun-woo approaches the medal zone on a stage that has been almost exclusively dominated by Western swimmers, the milestone of world swimming could change.