By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2026 ASIAN GAMES
September 20th – September 25th (pool swimming) Prelims at 10am local (9pm previous night ET)/Finals at 5pm local (4am ET) Tokyo Aquatics Centre LCM (50m) Meet Central Entries Live Results Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 Finals: Day 1South Korea’s Kim Youngbeom, 20, set a new Asian Games Record in the men’s 50 free on Monday morning in prelims of the event. He swam 21.71 and was the only swimmer under 22 seconds in the heats.
That time shaves .01 seconds off the time of his countrymate Ji Yuchan, 24, which was set at the 2023 edition. Ji qualified 3rd in the event this year behind Kim and Japan’s Shuya Matsumoto (22.03). Matsumoto is the current Asian Record holder in his event, thanks to a 21.64 done in 2025.
Asia is not historically known for having a great sprint group in the 50 freestyles, though in recent years the region has made a lot of progress in those areas.
South Korea is an archetype of that progress – they have really made big moves in all of the shorter freestyle events in the wake of the country’s most famous swimmer Park Tae Hwan. South Korea is the only country besides China to have won multiple men’s 50 free gold medals at the Asian Games.
China has won gold in 5 of the 9 editions offered since the event was added in 1990, and South Korea has won 2 (2022 for Ji, 2002 tie for Kim Min-suk).
Kim and Ji will both chase Ji’s South Korean National Record of 21.66 in finals. That time was done at the 2025 World Championships.
South Korea stands 3rd on the medals table after day 1, with 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. Kim Youngbeom earned silver in the 100 free on Monday in 47.65 ahead of his countrymate Hwang Sun-woo. In that race, Youngbeom was much faster in finals that he was in prelims.
His best times coming into the meet in the 50 and 100 free were 22.98 and 47.96, respectively.
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