The Korean swimming team added one bronze medal on the third day of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Korean swimming, led by Lee Joo-ho (Seogwipo City Hall, backstroke), Choi Dong-yeol (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, breaststroke), Yang Jae-hoon (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, butterfly), and Kim Young-beom (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, freestyle), jointly recorded a time of 3 minutes 31.97 seconds in the men's 400m medley relay final held at the Tokyo Aquatics Center in Japan on the 22nd. They finished in third place, following China (3 minutes 27.89 seconds) and Japan (3 minutes 28.70 seconds).
Korea, which won a silver medal in this event at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, climbed to the podium for the second consecutive time.
3 minutes 31.97 seconds is a new record that surpasses the previous Korean record for this event (3 minutes 32.05 seconds) set at the Hangzhou Games.
Kim Young-beom won a silver medal in the 100m freestyle on the 20th, a gold medal in the 50m freestyle on the 21st, and a bronze medal in the 400m medley relay that day, standing on the podium for three consecutive days and collecting gold, silver, and bronze.
Kim Woo-min (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province), a Korean mid- and long-distance swimmer, pushed ahead with competing in the 1,500m freestyle event with a shoulder injury, but left with a disappointing result.
Kim Woo-min recorded a time of 15 minutes, 16.52 seconds in the finals, finishing in 8th place, the lowest among the 8 players participating in the finals.
Kim Woo-min, who suffered a partial tear in his left shoulder rotator cuff and labrum while preparing for the competition, went through the motions without informing the outside world of this fact.
Although he competed for the lead until the 500m section, he felt severe pain afterwards and was unable to maintain the momentum of winning the silver medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.
The gold medal went to Chinese star Zhang Zhanshuo, who recorded 14 minutes 42.42 seconds.
Zhang Zhanshuo, who led the gold medal in the men's 800m relay the day before, won two gold medals in the competition.
Japan's Kaito Tabuchi (14 minutes 45.99 seconds) and Kazushi Imafuku (14 minutes 54.37 seconds) took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Kim Jun-woo (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Sports Council), the youngest member of the men's national team who competed with Kim Woo-min, crossed the finish line with a personal best of 14 minutes 57.13 seconds and placed 5th.
The women's 100m freestyle gold medal went to Hong Kong's Shervon Haughey, who recorded 52.45 seconds, while the silver and bronze medals went to China's Yui Ting (53.21) and Cheng Yujie (53.47), respectively.
Heo Yeon-kyung (Daejeon Metropolitan City Facilities Management Corporation) crossed the finish line with a record of 55.18 seconds and finished the competition in 6th place.
In the men's 400m individual medley final, Yumeki Kojima won the gold medal with a new competition record of 4 minutes 07.02 seconds, and Tomoyuki Matsushita (4 minutes 09.64 seconds) took second place, and Japan swept the gold and silver medals. Wang Sun (China, 4 minutes 14.59 seconds) followed with a bronze medal.
In Korea, Kim Min-seok (Jeonju City Hall) took 6th place with 4 minutes 17.96 seconds, and Kim Min-seop (Gyeongbuk Sports Council) took 8th place with 4 minutes 20.31 seconds, failing to enter the medal zone.
In the women's 200m backstroke final, Feng Shiwei (China) won the gold medal, setting a new Asian record of 2:05.77.
Sun Mingxia (2:08.65) won the silver medal, allowing China to dominate first and second places, and Rio Shirai (Japan, 2:08.70) took the bronze medal.
Eunji Lee (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Sports Council) arrived in 4th place with 2 minutes 10.47 seconds and did not make it to the podium.
