Kim Young-beom breaks the Asian Games record twice and takes 50m gold

Some records survive for years. The one Kim Young-beom set on Monday morning did not even make it through the evening.

The South Korean swimmer won the men’s 50-metre freestyle at the Asian Games on September 21, touching the wall in 21.66 seconds at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. It was a new Games record, and an upgrade on the one he had set earlier that day.

Yonhap reported that the 20-year-old finished ahead of Hong Kong’s Ho Ian Yentou, who took silver in 21.76 seconds. Fellow Korean Ji Yu-chan won bronze in 21.94.

The gap between gold and silver was one-tenth of a second. That is a tiny slice of time to separate a champion from the swimmer standing one step lower on the podium.

The warning came in the morning

Kim had already made his intentions clear in the heats. The Olympic Council of Asia’s report recorded his qualifying time at 21.71 seconds, the fastest in the field.

That swim beat the previous Games record of 21.72, set by Ji when he won the title at Hangzhou three years earlier. Kim finished the morning session 0.32 seconds ahead of Japan’s Shuya Matsumoto, the second-fastest qualifier.

Speaking after the heat, Kim said he was tired but felt relaxed in the water. He also believed another record was possible in the final. A few hours later, the clock backed him up.

His winning time cut another 0.05 seconds from the morning mark. Across the two swims, the Games record had moved from 21.72 to 21.66.

Silver on Sunday, gold on Monday

South Korean broadcaster SBS confirmed that the victory brought the country its first swimming gold of these Games. It also kept the men’s 50m freestyle title in Korean hands after Ji’s earlier win.

Kim had taken silver in the 100m freestyle the previous day. His Monday result added a different colour to his medal collection and made him one of the swimmers to watch as the competition continued.

The distinction in the record matters: this was an Asian Games record, meaning the fastest performance in this event at the Games. It should not be confused with a world record or a claim about every swimming competition in Asia.

For anyone who usually watches longer races, the appeal of a 50m sprint is simple. There is very little time for the story to change. On Monday, Kim managed to give that short story two memorable endings: a record in the heats, then a faster one when the gold medal was on the line.