Once you try open water swimming, you’ll be hooked .”The words of Park Jae-hoon (23, Seogwipo City Hall) were met with applause and cheers from the swimming and diving athletes who competed together at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Park Jae-hoon, a pioneer of open water swimming (marathon swimming) in Korea, enjoyed another exhilarating moment. The Korean Swimming Federation held an Asian Games prize-giving ceremony at the Olympic Parktel in Bangdong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Thursday, and Park was among the 22 athletes and five divers who were honored. Park finished third in the men’s 10-kilometer Open Water Swim at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games in 1:56:00.3 at the Chun’an Jiexiu Sports Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China on Sept. 7.
Open Water Swim was introduced as an official Asian Games event for the first time in Hangzhou, and Park became the first Korean medalist .As per the federation’s reward policy, Park received 1 million won. After receiving his prize, Park told his teammates, “Open water swimming is a sport in which swimmers swim in the ocean or river without a set lane. Unlike business, there are physical fights,” he said, “It has a different charm from business. If you try open water swimming once, you will feel this new charm.”
Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min (both of Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province), who have met Park in the past as ‘management athletes’, cheered him on as he took the stage as an Open Water Swim medalist .Park is a pioneer of the sport, having been named to the national team for five consecutive years since the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, Korea’s first Open Water Swim team. He also earned the distinction of being the first Korean to medal at the Asian Games.
“It’s not easy for an open water swimmer to win the ‘All Swimming Event’, so I’m happy to have this honor,” said Park. “I’ve been involved in the sort since Korea’s first open water swim team. It’s a great day for me,” he said emotionally.” The term ‘pioneer’ is undeserved, but it’s nice to hear,” he said, “I’ve never regretted starting Open Water Swim, even though it’s hard at times. “Sometimes it’s hard, but I’ve never regretted starting OpenWaters Swimming,” he said .Park started swimming in the third grade.Before the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, he finished second in the 1,500-meter freestyle trials, missing out on a first-place finish.
As an indoor swimmer who specialized in longer distances, he soon jumped into the “ocean. “My family encouraged me, and I was curious, but the bigger motivation was the ‘Taekwondo Mark,'” Park said. “I became a national team member when I started open water swimming, and I am still honored to be a national team member .”Even for him, ‘ocean swimming’ was unfamiliar .”When I first started open water swimming, there were quite a few things that were difficult to adapt to, such as bumping into fish and being hit in the eye by an opponent’s elbow and not being called for a foul,” he said, adding that as he continued to compete in competitions, he developed his own strategies, such as avoiding fights and riding the current to compensate for my relatively small physique.
Park’s short-term goal is to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. “If I finish as the best Asian athlete at the Doha World Championships in February next year, I will qualify for Paris. I will put everything on the line at the Doha World Championships. “He hasn’t abandoned his desire to swim the long freestyle distance .In other countries, many swimmers combine open water swimming with the 1,500 and 800 meters freestyle. “I gained confidence through open water swimming,” says Park. This confidence will help me to improve my freestyle time in management,” said Park. “My ultimate goal is to become a competitive athlete in both open water 카지노 swimming and management events.”