Kim Jun-woo finished second in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle with a time of 15:01.94 at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Netanya, Israel, on Tuesday.
It was only the second time a South Korean swimmer has won a medal at the World Junior Swimming Championships, which have been held for nine editions with the first in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2006.
Last year in Peru, Yang Ha-jung finished third in the women's 100-meter butterfly to give Korea its first-ever World Junior Championships medal.
Kim Jun-woo is the first Korean junior athlete to win a silver medal.
He also gained the symbolic distinction of having beaten Kim Woo-min (22-Gangwon Provincial Office), Korea's leading middle and long-distance swimmer.
Kim's time of 15:01.94 was 1.02 seconds ahead of Kim Woo-min's 15:02.96 in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Korean National Team Trials in March.
Kim, who became Korea's No. 1 men's 1,500-meter freestyle swimmer in 2023, came within 0.95 seconds of the standard time (15:00.99) to qualify for the event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I am proud of our athletes for performing to the best of their abilities in an unfamiliar environment and confirming who the next generation of Korean 토토사이트 swimmers will be," said Korean Swimming Federation President Chung Chang-hoon at the airport, "and I look forward to greeting them at the senior national team in the near future."
The Korean team won one silver medal at the event, finishing in 18th place out of 94 competing nations.