'Over 3 Seconds Faster Than Qualifiers' Kim Woo-min Wins Bronze in 400m [Paris Olympics]

Kim Woo-min won the bronze medal in the men's freestyle 400m swimming event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kim Woo-min became the second Olympic medalist in Korean swimming history, following Park Tae-hwan.

On the 27th (local time), Kim Woo-min finished third in the men's freestyle 400m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the La D?fense swimming pool in Paris, France, with a time of 3 minutes 42.50 seconds. The gold medal went to Germany's Lukas Martens (3 minutes 41.78 seconds), and the silver to Australia's Elijah Winnington (3 minutes 42.21 seconds). Kim Woo-min was 0.72 seconds behind Martens.

Kim Woo-min improved his time by more than 3 seconds compared to the preliminaries to enter the medal contention. In the 4th heat of the preliminaries, Kim recorded 3 minutes 45.52 seconds, finishing 4th in his heat. His qualification for the final was uncertain, but only two swimmers in the last 5th heat posted better times than Kim, allowing him to narrowly advance to the final in 7th place overall.

Kim Woo-min is celebrating after winning the bronze medal in the men's 400m freestyle swimming final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at La D?fense Arena in Paris, France, on the 27th (local time).
Photo by Yonhap News

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In the final, Kim Woo-min started smoothly from lane 1 with the fastest reaction time among the eight swimmers, clocking 0.62 seconds.

He passed the 50m mark in a flat 25 seconds, ranking second, just 0.16 seconds behind Martens. Kim maintained the gap with Martens and held second place up to the 350m mark. At 350m, the gap between Kim and Martens was 0.83 seconds.

On the 27th (local time), Kim Woo-min is swimming backstroke in the men's 400m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. [Image source=Yonhap News]

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Kim Woo-min completed the last 50m segment in 28.14 seconds, reducing the gap with Martens. However, he lost the second place to Winnington, who showed an impressive final sprint, and settled for the bronze medal. Winnington recorded 27.33 seconds in the last 50m segment.

Korean swimming earned an Olympic medal for the first time in 12 years since Park Tae-hwan at the 2012 London Olympics. Kim Woo-min's bronze in the 400m is the fifth Olympic medal ever won by Korean swimming.

Until now, all Olympic medals in Korean swimming were won by Park Tae-hwan. Park won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 400m and silver in the 200m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and two silver medals in the 400m and 200m at the 2012 London Olympics.

Kim Woo-min will compete in the freestyle 200m on the 28th. On the 30th, he will aim for an additional medal in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay alongside Hwang Sun-woo and Lee Ho-jun.

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