Marine Boy Achieves Impressive Double

South Korean swimming phenomenon Park Tae-hwan (18, Gyunggi High) has surprised the world once again. The 18-year-old claimed two consecutive gold medals in the 200m and 1,500m freestyle races in the fifth leg of the FINA World Cup Series in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 15.

Park won the 1,500m final in 14:36:42, more than ten seconds clear of runner-up Robert Margalis of the United States. More amazingly, he grasped gold in the 200m freestyle after just a 10-minute break, spent watching the women’s 100m freestyle.

In the 200m competition, Park finished in 1:45:87 to hold off Germany’s Paul Wiedermann – who concentrated all his energies on the 200m, after giving up Wednesday’s 400m and sacrificing Thursday’s 1500m – outpacing him by 1.52 seconds. Park’s 200m record on the day was just 0.49 seconds outside the world record of 1:43:38. FINA expressed its compliments to the Korean swimming phenom by using the words “amazing performance” on its Web site (www.fina.org).

People wonder where Park’s power comes from. Dr. Song Hong-seon at the Korea Institute of Sport Science, who supports Park, said, “Park Tae-hwan does not easily tire due to his smooth swimming style as well as excellent lung capacity and tenacity.” Park has a strong heart which supplies enough blood into his body without increasing his heart rate. His lung capacity of 7000cc also exceeds other swimming athletes by as much as 1000-2000cc, which means that Park inhales much more air in every breath. On top of it, his smooth swimming style enables him to keep steady speed, and thus, preventing tiredness.

Park hung three gold medals around his neck on Thursday along with the one he earned on the previous day, and he became a triple Gold medalist of the World Cup once again, following the competition held in Sydney, Australia, in early November.

yjongk@donga.com