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18-Yr-Old Kim Youngbeom Blasts 47.96 100 Free At Korean Championships

2025 KOREAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2025 Korean Swimming Championships began this week and already we saw some impressive performances as athletes try to notch their names onto the World Championships roster.

Racing in the men’s 100m freestyle, 18-year-old Kim Youngbeom blasted a new lifetime best of 47.96 to claim the top spot. out of the heats.

The performance represented the teen’s first-ever foray under the 48-second barrier.

Entering this competition, Kim’s PB rested at the 48.65 logged in the heats of the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships. He ultimately won the gold there in Australia in a slightly slower outing of 48.66.

Olympic finalist Hwang Sunwoo remains the Korean national record holder in the men’s 100m free with this 47.56 from the 2020 Olympic Games. However, Kim joins Hwang as the only two Koreans ever to delve into the 47-range.

Kim becomes the 7th-best Asian swimmer of all time and is the sole sub-48-second swimmer in the world at the moment.

Of note, Hwang was 48.75 in the prelims.

2024-2025 LCM Men 100 Free

2Thomas
CECCON
ITA48.1703/16
3Jamie
Jack
AUS48.2712/16
4Shaine
Casas
USA48.3103/06
5KATSUHIRO
MATSUMOTO KATSUHIRO
JPN48.3603/22
View Top 26»

 

 

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Aquatic Ursine
14 days ago

GMOs are breeding monsters

PFA
15 days ago

Dudes stroke rate is so smooth and long might be the longest I’ve seen for someone in a long time

cow from china
15 days ago

wouldve been 45 if his ears were in his cap

monsterbasher
15 days ago

How tall is he?? He looks gigantic in the water.

MPalota
Reply to  monsterbasher
14 days ago

Came here to say that, too! Looks like he’s at least 1.90m, maybe 1.95m.

Zdf
Reply to  monsterbasher
14 days ago

196cm
216cm

Dee
15 days ago

Damn, there’s man 4 on the Korean 4×2!

Cassandra
Reply to  Dee
14 days ago

just as one supreme falls (uk), another rises (china and korea)… bob has a lot of work on his hands if the us men are to ever win this relay ever again

Bruh
15 days ago

Looks like he didn’t breathe the first 25…

Team Portillo’s
15 days ago

Bro is 6’7

Astur
15 days ago

Do Assians (at least eastern Assians like Japanese, Korean and Chinese) peak earlier in life?

bonk
Reply to  Astur
15 days ago

huh

monsterbasher
Reply to  Astur
15 days ago

Idk. I’ll confirm with you when my life goes downhill.

Cassandra
Reply to  Astur
14 days ago

lol good luck phrenologizing the us out of its comparative decline…

siobhan haughey and zhang yufei both collected multiple individual medals in their mid to late 20s… wang shun and xu jiayu had pretty electric meets at age 31 and 29 — while their american generational counterparts (dressel, fink, murphy) did not

Pradnya
Reply to  Astur
14 days ago

What’s “Assians”?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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