Kim Woo-min Chooses 'Courageous Forfeiture'... LA Awaits Him

Kim Woo-min (25, Gangwon State Office), who somehow wanted to protect the pool until the end, has finally brought his 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games journey to a close due to an injury.

Following the conclusion of the men's 400m relay preliminaries at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan on the 24th, Kim decided to withdraw from the 400m freestyle, which was scheduled for the 25th.

He only learned the exact extent of his injury after finishing 8th out of 8 swimmers due to severe shoulder pain during the 1,500m freestyle final on the 22nd.

Ahead of the competition, he had been saying, "My shoulder just feels a bit uncomfortable and I'm receiving treatment, so it's fine," but his shoulder was actually in a serious condition.

Part of his left shoulder rotator cuff was torn, and even the cartilage (labrum) was damaged.

Kim had pushed ahead with participating in the competition because he only confirmed his condition through a detailed medical examination two weeks before leaving for Japan.

Fortunately, there were no major issues up until his first schedule, the 800m relay on the 21st.

Therefore, despite concerns within the national team, he competed in the 1,500m freestyle, and trouble ultimately arose during that race.

Kim possesses such a strong competitive drive that he shed tears in front of reporters, feeling it was such a waste of the effort and time he put into preparing for the games, and feeling so angry with himself for failing to perform properly due to pain.

That is why, even after his shoulder pain worsened, he stated that he would compete in his main event, the 400m freestyle, and deliberate on the 800m freestyle.

Because structural issues had developed in his shoulder, no miracle occurred.

Even amidst strong dissuasion from the Korea Swimming Federation as well as the national team's head coach and coaching staff, Kim volunteered to compete in the 400m relay out of a desire to "take a little bit of the burden off my teammates because I feel sorry for them."

As a result, even though he ultimately decided to withdraw from the 400m freestyle and wrap up the competition, merely confirming that his physical condition made it difficult to even swim 100 meters properly turned out to be a blessing in disguise.


After the 400m relay preliminaries concluded, Kim confessed, "It hurt more than I expected, so I was flustered."

If he had competed in the 400m freestyle, which requires much heavier use of the shoulders, and felt pain—and if he had pushed through to finish the race because of his competitive drive—his injury could have worsened even further.

No matter what anyone says, Kim Woo-min is the backbone of South Korean swimming.

At first, close teammate and junior Hwang Sunwoo received attention first, but through honing their skills together, Kim's abilities also grew rapidly.

Kim stood at the top of the podium in three events—the men's 400m, 800m, and 800m relay—at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, and won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the sole medalist among South Korean athletes.

Born in 2001, Kim is still young.

There are plenty of cases of swimmers overcoming shoulder injuries.

Kyle Chalmers, the gold medalist in the men's 100m freestyle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, went under the knife for the exact same condition as Kim in late 2020, only to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held just a few months later in 2021, where he won two bronze medals.

For Kim, a world-class middle- and long-distance swimmer, the Los Angeles (LA) Olympics await in two years.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.