Swim Phenom Has Beijing in His Sights

Korea could be winning Olympic swimming medals soon.

Korean swimming prodigy Park Tae-hwan (17, Gyeonggi High School) won two silver medals in the 2006 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Shanghai with a 14:33:28 finish in the 1,500m men’s freestyle yesterday, and a second-place finish in the tourney’s 400m men’s freestyle two days ago.

Russian swim phenom Yuri Prilukov (22) took the gold in both events. Prilucov is a world-class swimmer who is in the same class as Australia’s Grant Hackett, the gold medalist in the men’s 1,500m at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics.

Park stands 181cm tall and weighs 69kg, and is still growing. If he continues to develop, he has a shot at winning medals at the Qatar Doha Asian Games in December, and could possibly win the first swimming gold medal for Korea in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, according to experts.

National swim team coach Wu Won-ki is confident of Park’s prospects. “His strength and stamina need improving. But his body is growing and his turning skill is getting better every day. He will be in his prime by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”

Noh Min-sang (50), the manager of the Seungri Swim Club and the one who first discovered the young talent, advises Park to be humble. “Young athletes are quite sensitive to other people’s opinions. Rather than inflating their ego, we should all just cheer them on.”

Jae-Yun Jung jaeyuna@donga.com