2024 KOREAN OLYMPIC TRIALS

The 2024 Korean Olympic Trials kicked off today from Gimcheon and already we saw three swimmers qualify for the Paris Olympic Games to begin the competition with a bang.

Racing in the finals of the men’s 1500m free, Kim Woomin fired off a time of 14:58.03 to take the gold.

22-year-old Woomin represented the sole swimmer to dip under the 15:00 barrier as he beat the field by over 20 seconds. In the process, the ace also cleared the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 15:00.99 needed to add his name to the nation’s roster for the Paris Olympics.

Additionally, Kim’s time established a new personal best, undercutting the 15:01.07 he produced for silver at last year’s Asian Games. There in Hangzhou, Kim topped the podium in both the 400m and 800m freestyle races. He’ll contest those distances and the 200m later at these Trials.

Kim’s Olympic qualification came on the heels of taking the World Championships title in the 400m free last month. In Doha, he busted out a gold medal-worthy result of 3:42.71 to become the first Korean 400m free world champion since Park Taehwan at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.

Additionally in Doha, Kim was a critical member of the men’s 4x200m free relay which went down to the wire in a heated battle with China. Kim split 1:44.93 to help Korea clock a collective time of 7:01.94 to come within .10 of their Asian rivals.

Kim recently returned to Korea after training at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Tonight’s outing renders him just outside the list of top 10 performers in the world this season.

Also making the grade for Paris was Kim Minseop as he powered his way to the top seed in the men’s 200m butterfly heats.

Kim stopped the clock in a time of 1:55.45 to land lane 4 nearly 5 seconds ahead of the pack. His outing checked in as a new Korean national record, overtaking his own previous benchmark of 1:55.95 put on the books in November 2022.

Kim’s result dipped under the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 1:55.78 to add his name to the nation’s roster for Paris. Splits are not available at this time.

As a bonus, Kim earned 1 million won (~$745 USD) for setting a new Korean record. His performance today ranks him 12th in the world on the season.

Another notable swim came in the women’s 200m back heats where the 17-year-old Lee Eunji produced a top-seeded effort of 2:09.88.

Her outing has already cleared the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 2:10.39 en route to taking the #1 spot for tomorrow’s final.

Lee’s result came within striking distance of the 2:09.49 Korean national record Im Da-sol logged in 2019.

The teenager is coming off a successful Asian Games where she collected bronze in the women’s 100m back with a national record-tying 1:00.03 and bronze in the 200m back in 2:09.75. She also helped the nation secure 3 relay medals.