Park Tae-hwan Is Going For Gold

Korea’s “Prodigy Swimmer” Park Tae-hwan (18, Kyunggi High School) won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and a bronze in the 200-meter freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia, which ended April 1.

What obstacles lie ahead between winning the gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Park Tae-hwan?

First, he needs to brush up on his experience.

Including the 1500-meter freestyle heat that Park was disqualified in, he has only been in official races four times. Former national coach Kim Bong-jo (60), who singled out Park during the third year of Park’s middle school days, says, “In my prime, my main event was the 1500 meters, but you need to compete at least 20 times to develop your pace regulation skills.”

The problem is that it is not easy for Park, who is already a big-time athlete, to find competition on Park’s level for him to train with. For this reason, coach Park Seok-gi (55) is making Park’s training partner Kang Yong-hwan (22, Gangwon-do) wear flippers to create competition.

Secondly, Park is in dire need of perfecting his swimming stroke and reinforcing his bodily strength. On March 31, coach Park set a target time for Park Tae-hwan of 15.00 seconds for the 1500-meter event. But Park Tae-hwan, who clocked in 3.62 seconds later than the fixed time, complained, “Because my stamina was weak, it was really hard toward the second half.” Standing 183 centimeters tall, Park has no choice but to cultivate muscle strength and endurance through more training and practice if he is to race against his competitors who tower over him with an average height of almost 200 centimeters.

Park’s lung capacity is 7000 cubic centimeters, nearly twice the 4000 for a regular adult. The ideal breathing method during a swimming race is to breathe in while turning the head 90 degrees, then quickly facing forward. Park, however, swivels his head 130 degrees. This is due to his desire to breathe in harder, despite his abundant lung capacity. It is of utmost importance that Park eliminates excess movements and keeps a streamlined position.

After Park started his individual training in January, his stretching time takes twice as long as before. This is to build flexibility. Coach Park says, “Tae-hwan’s joint movements are restricted, so his efficiency is faulty compared to his competitors’. If his arm and leg movements are wider, he can push more water.”

He added, “He has many weaknesses, but the future looks bright for a gold for Park at the Olympics. He has more winning spirit and learning skills than anyone.”

jeon@donga.com