'Korea's First Female 200m Backstroke Semifinalist' Lee Eun-ji Fails to Qualify for Finals, Placing 15th [Paris Olympics]

2 minutes 11.86 seconds, 15th overall... Failed to advance to the finals

Lee Eun-ji (18, Bangsan High School), the youngest member of the South Korean national swimming team, finished 15th overall in the women's 200m backstroke semifinals, narrowly missing out on advancing to the finals.

Lee Eun-ji (18, Bangsan High School), the youngest member of the South Korean national swimming team, finished 15th overall in the 200m backstroke semifinals, narrowly missing out on advancing to the finals.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 2nd (Korean time), Lee Eun-ji recorded a time of 2:11.86 in the first heat of the women's 200m backstroke semifinals at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics held at the La D?fense Swimming Center in Paris, France.

Having advanced to the semifinals with a time of 2:09.88, ranking 10th overall in the preliminaries, Lee swam competitively in the semifinals but was unable to match her preliminary time, finishing 8th in heat 1 and 15th overall out of 16 swimmers, thus missing the cut for the finals, which are reserved for the top 8.

Although she narrowly missed the finals, it was a meaningful swim. Lee Eun-ji is South Korea’s backstroke ace. She competed in the 100m and 200m backstroke events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but was eliminated in the preliminaries. However, at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, she swept bronze medals in those events.

Lee also proved her skills by winning medals in the mixed medley relay 400m (silver), mixed medley relay 400m (bronze), and freestyle relay 800m (bronze) at the Asian Games.

After the semifinals ended, Lee Eun-ji met with the press.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Earlier that day, Lee secured her spot in the semifinals by recording 2:09.88 in the 200m backstroke preliminaries, becoming the first South Korean swimmer to reach the semifinals in this Olympic event.

Her achievement is especially valuable as it was accomplished despite an injury. Lee injured her ankle in April and entered Paris not in peak condition, but she overcame this and set a new milestone for Korean swimming with her performance.

Despite her valiant effort, Lee Eun-ji narrowly missed advancing in the semifinals and will postpone her challenge to become the first South Korean female swimmer to reach the Olympic finals in the 200m backstroke to a future occasion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.