The 22-year-old German rising star Lukas Martens is the favourite to win the men's middle-distance freestyle at the Paris Olympics. Martens set the world's best results in the men's 200m and 400m freestyle at the 2024 German Swimming Championships that ended on the 29th Beijing time. Among them, in the men's 200-meter freestyle final held on the 28th, Martens won the championship with a time of 1:44.14.
Germany's Martens threatens South Korea's swimmers at the Paris Olympics
FINA counts the "overall record" and "athlete ranking" of each individual event separately. Among them, the men's 200m freestyle world record (1:42.00) and the second-fastest record (1:42.81) were both set by German legend Paul Biedermann. In the "Competitor Rankings", Biederman also took the top spot, followed by Michael Phelps (1:42.96 • USA), third David Popovich (1:42.97 • Romania), fourth Yannick Anil (1:43.14 • France), fifth Danila Izotov (1:43.90) and sixth Ian Thorpe (1:44.06). Martens, who swam 1:44.14, finished seventh on the list.
Martens shaved his previous personal best of 1:44.79 by 0.65 seconds to leap past Tom Dean (1:44.22, GBR) to move to seventh place in the men's 200m freestyle rankings. Among the active players, he is the second player after Popovich. South Korea's first brother Hwang Xuanyou's personal best time is 1:44.40, ranking 13th all-time. As Martens moved up to No. 7 on the day, Huang Xuanyou's ranking dropped from No. 12 to No. 13.
Huang Xuanyou won the bronze medal in the men's 100m freestyle at the Hangzhou Asian Games
Martens jumped to first place in the 2024 men's 200m freestyle record rankings. Matthew Richards (1:44.69, GBR) was second, while Huang Xuanyou and Duncan Scott (GBR, both 1:44.75) were tied for third.
In the 200m freestyle at the 2024 World Championships in Doha in February, South Korea's Hwang Seon-woo won in 1:44.75, while Martens finished fourth in 1:45.33. Martens' three medals at the World Swimming Championships came in the men's 400m freestyle (second place at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, third place at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka and Doha 2024).
With less than three months left before the start of the Paris Olympics (July 26), Martens picked up speed in the 200m freestyle, and Hwang was more vigilant, according to South Korean media. Martens' threat to South Korean swimming doesn't stop there, as Martens also won the men's 400m freestyle at the German Championships with a personal best of 3:40.33, after his previous personal best was 41.60 seconds. The time of 3:40.33 is the fourth-best time in the history of the event after Biederman (3:40.07), Thorpe (3:40.08) and Sun Yang (3:40.14, China).
At the World Swimming Championships in Doha in February, South Korea's Kim Woo-min won the gold medal in the men's 400m freestyle in 3:42.71, while Martens finished third in 3:42.96. Martens set a new personal record for the first time in two months, surpassing Eliza Winnington (3:41.41), Samuel Short (3:41.64, all Australia) and Kim Woo-min to become the world's best in the event in 2024.
On March 27, Kim Woo-min holds a mascot doll of the Paris Olympics after winning the men's 400-meter freestyle final of the South Korean national representative selection competition at the Paris Olympics
In previous Olympic Games, South Korea has won four medals in swimming, all of which were achieved by Park Tae-hwan alone. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Park Tae-hwan won the gold medal in the men's 400m freestyle and the silver medal in the 200m freestyle, and at the 2012 London Olympics, he won two silver medals in the men's 400m and 200m freestyle.
South Korea Swimming is looking to win medals at Paris 2024 in the men's 200m freestyle, Kim Woo-min in the men's 400m freestyle, and Hwang and Kim Woo-min in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay. Initially, South Korean media predicted that Hwang would compete for medals in the men's 200m freestyle at the Paris Olympics against Richards, Scott (all of the above), Popovich (Romania) and others, while Kim Woo-min would compete for medals with Short, Winnington (all of the above) and Ahmed Hafnavi (Tunisia).
Martens now tops the season in both the men's 200m and 400m freestyle, signalling an intensification of competition in both events.