'Watch me do 8 dolphin kicks right after the 5th turn,' says Park

The best of Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan can be seen in the 400m freestyle event, which will open on Sunday. At this event, the 27-year-old grabbed a golden medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver medal in the 2012 London Olympics. But after four years, Park is now placed in a position where he has to challenge 20-year-old Australian Mack Horton and 25-year-old Chinese Sun Yang. Nevertheless, that did not change Park who was calmly determined to "enjoy the stress-free game."

Park is ranked sixth this season, recording his best 400m freestyle time at 3:44.26 at the Dong-A Swimming Championships held in April. Faster than Park were Horton (3:41.65), Sun Yang (3:43.55), Connor Jaeger (age 25, U.S., 3:43.79), James Guy (age 21, the U.K., 3:43.84), and Gabriele Detti (age 22, Italy, 3:43.97). What's noticeable is that Horton continued to arrive at 3:41-42 in international competitions and trainings this season. This means Horton is closing the gap between Park's best personal best (3:41.53) recorded in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. To qualify for the finals, Park must beat his personal best from the preliminaries.

"In average, the bar for 400m freestylers has been set higher. An all-out effort must be made right from the preliminaries to swim in the lane closest to the finals," said former national swimming team coach Noh Min-sang. "Around three players led the games eight years ago, and Sun Yang and I widened the gap with others by 1-2 seconds in 2012," Park said. "However, everyone has a contender now, so I have to watch out from the preliminaries."

Based on preliminary records, swimmers qualify for their respective lanes at the finals. The fastest qualifier is assigned the middle lane 4, followed by lane 5, 3, and 6. To reach the medal podium, lanes 1 and 8 are definitely to be shunned, as players have to swim through the highest water resistance.

The key to victory lies in the 200-300m distances, where the game enters into a middle to final phase. Though competitive in the initial phase and final spurts, the 200-300m was always an Achilles gun to Park. In particular, he drastically slows down when he swims back after the 250m turn.

Statistics also prove that Park lags behind his competitors including Horton. When compared in 100m distances, Park was slower in the 200-300m. While Park maintained at the 57 seconds range in the 200-300m distances at the recent Dong-A competition, Horton was faster at 55:88 this season. Moreover, Park aimed to shorten his time by breaking into 100m distances (53-55-55-54) at the 2012 London Olympics, but never made it to the 55 range in the 200-300m.

This is why Park worked fiercely to secure farther reach underwater with more than eight dolphin kicks at the 250m turn; a point where he is rapidly exhausted. To do so, Park underwent intensive pelvic muscle exercises after the Dong-A Championships to make up for his shortfalls in the 200-300m distances. "To me, the preliminaries and finals will be just the same as my morning and evening training sessions," Park said. "I will swim with one simple goal; never fall behind in the 200-300m."

유재영기자 elegant@donga.com