Kim Woo Min, 25 years old, Gangwon Provincial Government, who won three gold medals and was awarded the MVP, Most Valuable Player, of the South Korean team at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, has decided to withdraw from the men’s 400m freestyle, his main event, at the 2026 Aichi Nagoya Asian Games due to injury setbacks.
According to the Korea Swimming Federation, Kim Woo Min led the national team to the final in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay preliminaries held at the Tokyo Aquatics Center in Japan on the 24th, but considering his physical condition, he decided to withdraw from the men’s 400m freestyle scheduled for the following day. Earlier, after finishing eighth out of eight participants in the men’s 1500m freestyle final on the 22nd, Kim Woo Min complained of left shoulder pain.
Lee Ho Jun, 25 years old, Jeju City Hall, will compete in the men’s 400m freestyle, from which Kim Woo Min withdrew, aiming for a medal. He is a bronze medalist in the men’s 200m freestyle at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
After finishing the event that day, Kim Woo Min explained the reason for insisting on participating in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay preliminaries, saying, “I couldn’t stay still while my teammates were fighting hard, so it was hard to relax,” but he confessed, “I was more shocked by the pain than I had expected. Although I’m receiving treatment and taking medication, this isn’t an injury that will get better overnight. I still feel stiffness even when I sleep.”
The men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, which lined up in the order of Kim Woo Min, Ji Yu-chan, 24 years old, Daegu City Hall, Lee Ho Jun, and Kim Min Seop, 22 years old, Gyeongbuk Sports Council, recorded 3 minutes and 19.55 seconds in the preliminaries that day, securing a ticket to the final as the fourth-fastest among the top 10 teams. The final will be held at the same venue at 6:14 p.m. that day.
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