Park Tae-hwan Rallies to Win Once Again

“Marineboy” Park Tae-hwan (18, Kyunggi High School) appeared at Munsu Swimming Pool in Ulsan with training partner Kang Yong-hwan (22, Gangwon Province) on April 22 at 1:00 p.m.

No competitions were scheduled for him, but he had come for a workout. After light stretching, Kang led the practice with Park following, rotating between freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke. Park swam up and down the 50 meter lane for one-and-a-half hours without stopping.

Park is still not in his best condition. It has only been a week since he resumed training after returning in early April from the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships held in Melbourne, Australia in March.

Coach Park Seok-gi, who is training Park, said, “We’re only participating in this competition for the sake of the team, so we won’t put too much focus on his record. Our goal is the Pre-Olympics which will be held in August in Tokyo, Japan.”

Although claiming not to be in his best form, Park shone at the 79th Dong-A Swimming Competition.

In the finals of the men’s high school 800-meter relay (where four swimmers swim for 200 meters each in butterfly-backstroke-breaststroke-freestyle order), Park appeared as the last swimmer for Kyunggi High School and led the team to victory with a record of 7:44.85.

Park was in second place, 0.6 seconds behind Chungbuk Physical Education High School up to his first 50-meter turn, but showed his signature last-minute spurt to beat Chungbuk (7:54.24) by nearly 10 seconds to the finish line. Park’s personal 200-meter record of the day was 1:51.42, which was not up to the Asian record that he set in Australia (1:46.73).

Park will participate in the men’s high school 400-meter medley relay (where four swimmers swim for 100 meters each in backstroke-breaststroke-butterfly-freestyle order) on April 23, to take a shot at his second win.

Kang Yong-hwan, who won the men’s 400-meter freestyle and 800-meter relay, said, “I’m not in a good state physically, but I want to win the 400-meter medley relay on April 23 for a total of three wins.”

Meanwhile, Park is said to have recently begun taking private English lessons. He seems to have felt the need for studying English. A close confidant of Park’s said, “His goal is to reach the stage where he will be able to conduct interviews with foreign press without interpreters.”

beetlez@donga.com