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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Over the last four months or so, the bar has undoubtedly been raised in the men’s 200 freestyle.
Back in June, a SwimSwam poll indicated that only 37.7 percent of readers believed that we would see a swimmer break the 1:44 barrier in the 200 free. Little did we know, we’d see someone go sub-1:43.
Romanian sensation David Popovici first went 1:43.21 to win the World Championship title in June, and then one-upped himself by clocking 1:42.97 at the European Championships in August.
Prior to Popovici’s immaculate summer, he was frequently mentioned in the same breath as South Korean Hwang Sunwoo in terms of up-and-coming male freestylers with the ability to do some damage.
Hwang, who was the first swimmer to take the World Junior Record under 1:45, was the silver medalist behind Popovici at Worlds, setting a new best of 1:44.47, and is clearly not satisfied with being the second best in the world.
Competing at the Korean National Sports Festival over the last week, the 19-year-old delivered several noteworthy swims, but standing out above the rest was his performance in the 200 free, where he neared his lifetime best with a sizzling 1:44.67.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bz_Gnb6JJM
Not only is this a phenomenal time at this point in the year—with no major long course titles on the line until mid-2023—but Hwang also showed a slight change in his strategy that could pay dividends down the road.
When he first cracked 1:45 in May 2021 (1:44.96), Hwang split the race fairly evenly, managing to get out in 50.7 at the 100 and closing with a final 50 split of 26.84.
At the Tokyo Olympics a few months later, he reset his best time down to 1:44.62 in the prelims, showing increased aggression on the front half of the race. In the final, he doubled down on this tactic and it cost him, as Hwang reeled off splits of 23.95, 25.83 and 26.78 over the first 150, holding a big lead in the race, but faded bad and finished seventh in 1:45.26 (closing in 28.70).
At the 2022 World Championships in June, he showed improved splitting relative to the Olympics, but was still 27.1 on the way home.
This past week in Korea, Hwang showed a bit more patience in the race, producing the fastest closing split of his career in 26.50.
Hwang Split Comparison
| May 2021 | July 2021 (Olympic Prelims) | July 2021 (Olympic Final) | June 2022 | October 2022 |
| 24.34 | 24.08 | 23.95 | 24.36 | 24.38 |
| 50.74 (26.40) | 50.12 (26.04) | 49.78 (25.83) | 50.72 (26.36) | 50.91 (26.53) |
| 1:18.12 (27.38) | 1:17.01 (26.89) | 1:16.56 (26.78) | 1:17.33 (26.61) | 1:18.17 (27.26) |
| 1:44.96 (26.84) | 1:44.62 (27.61) | 1:45.26 (28.70) | 1:44.47 (27.14) | 1:44.67 (26.50) |
Hwang isn’t alone in experimenting with different strategies in trying to find the optimal solution to the 200 free puzzle.
Popovici, for example, was significantly faster over the first 150 at the World Championships (1:16.27) compared to Euros (1:16.96), but managed to come back almost a second faster in Rome with a scintillating 26.01.
Popovici has upped the ante, but Hwang is hot on his tail, and coming off a silver medal-winning performance at Worlds, he’s had a strong start to 2022-23.
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Apart from rising young swimmers, I think Dean and Scott are still strong in the 200F.
Fastest last 50 of his career? Must have been working some back end speed with old coach Magee in Erzurum.
Im thinking a 1:43 low in the future
The USA hs consistently been unable to produce a threat in this event. Probably because the emphasis on SCY in NCAA programs and in USA swimming in general does not tend to produce talent in the 200LCM freestyle. Phelps didn’t swim in college so was able to get more early long course experience and excel in this and other long course events.
I think that we have produced threats, but what was when the best times at international meets were between 1:45.0 and 1:46.5. For a while there, that was the top end of the event. In that range Townley Hass was there consistently for a bit (1:45.0) as well as Conor Dwyer (1:45.2). But, as the standard of excellence has been increasing, I will be curious to see if swimmers like Kieran Smith (1:44.7) and Drew Kibler (1:45.0) can keep up.
I think this is a great swim from Hwang Sunwoo. It is a relief and is exciting to see some of these kinds of times being dropped in non-olympic/ larger international meets. David Pop is clearly the frontrunner in this event as we head into the next olympics and world championships, but I really hope that there is a group of two or three other swimmers who can make a push to join him in the 1:43s. I think this 200 free is the race that needs some new faces from those who can change the 1:45-46 standard that has been present the past couple of years.
I have a feeling change is on the horizon. Just not exactly sure who.
I am not saying that David Pop came out of nowhere, but he wasn’t on everyone’s watchlist to have the best time in the world before last year’s Olympics. I think that there will be a lot of 200 freestylers that come out of the woodwork over the next 2.5 years. My prediction is that there will be two or three names in the 2024 Olympic final that are not on everyone’s radar at this time.