High schooler sets new record in women’s 100m breaststroke

Park Si-eun, a 17-year-old high schooler and a national swimming team member, has set a new South Korean record in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke.

On Wednesday, at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25 meters) held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Park completed the 100m breaststroke preliminaries at 1:05.36. This broke the previous South Korean record of 1:05.37 set by Kim Hye-jin in 2011 during the Swimming World Cup by a margin of 0.01 seconds. Although Park placed 21st out of 65 competitors in the preliminaries and did not advance to the semifinals, where the top 16 qualify, she expressed her joy, saying, “It was my first time competing at the World Championships, and I am thrilled with the experience and achieving a great record.”

Park has been a rising star, advancing to the finals in the breaststroke events at the World Junior Championships for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. She earned her spot on the senior national team for the first time after winning the 200-meter breaststroke at the national team trials in March this year. During the Swimming World Cup in Incheon in October, she set South Korean records in the 50-meter breaststroke (30.35 seconds) and the 200-meter breaststroke (2:19.58).


Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com