Seoul, Korea, December 17, 2023: Hangzhou Asian Games swimming champion Hwang Sun-woo will lead Korea's team of 37 athletes at the World Aquatics Championships Doha 2024, Yonhap News reports.
The Korea Swimming Federation (KSF) on Friday announced the national team roster for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, set for February 2-18 in the Qatari capital.
Korea will send 37 athletes and 11 coaches in swimming, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving -- with water polo being the lone exception.
Hwang, 20, won six medals at the 19th Asian Games, including two gold medals in the men’s 200m freestyle and men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. He added two silvers and two bronze.
In previous world championships, Hwang won silver in the men's 200m freestyle at Budapest 2022 and then bronze in the same race this year in Fukuoka, Japan.
Hwang is set to compete in the 100m and 200m freestyle, plus the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Among other notables, Kim Woo-min, a triple gold medalist at this year's Asian Games, will be going for his first world championships medal in the 400m freestyle. Kim finished fifth in that distance in Fukuoka as the only Asian swimmer in the final.
Hwang, Kim, Lee Ho-joon and Lee Yoo-yeon will team up in the 4x200m relay. In Fukuoka, Hwang, Kim, Lee Ho-joon and Yang Jae-hoon finished sixth with a then-national record time of 7:04.07. Two months later, the same quartet broke that mark in winning the Asian Games gold medal in 7:01.73. Lee Yoo-yeon, who was on the relay team at the 2022 worlds, beat out Yang at the national team trials last month to regain his spot.
Eight divers, including veterans Woo Haram and Kim Su-ji, will try to earn tickets to the Paris Olympics. And for the second straight worlds, Choi Byung-hwa will be the lone South Korean in high diving.