Park rebounds after career highs, lows
Marine Boy is back. Park Tae-hwan, 27, finished first in the final of the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle on day three of the Arena Pro Swim Series at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Sunday.
Together with his wins in the 400-meter and 200-meter finals, he grabbed three titles during the competition.
His achievements there are encouraging, partly because it came nearly two months before the 2017 FINA World Swimming Championships slated for July 14-30 in Budapest, Hungary, where he will compete against the world’s finest swimmers. His last appearance at the world championships was six years ago.
In a press release after the Arena Pro Swim Series competition, Park said he had regrets about his performances in Atlanta but would try to forget them as soon as he could to fully focus on the forthcoming world championships.
He didn’t elaborate what his regrets were, but it seems to be related to his records. His time in the 1,500 meter final (15:06:38) fell far behind his personal best record (14:47:38). His 200-meter time (1:46:71) was also behind his personal best (1:44:80) which he set during the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and is still the world record (1:42:00).
Like it or not, the former Olympic champion’s grabbing three titles in Atlanta is special and something memorable because it signifies Marine Boy’s much-anticipated comeback on the global sports scene years after he fell into disgrace for the doping scandal.
As Park acknowledged, his career has been a rollercoaster ride — he rose to stardom after he became the first Korean swimmer to win Olympic medals in 2008 but his heyday was short-lived.
He became an Asian swimming sensation for winning gold and silver medals in the men’s 400-meter and 200-meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
What he achieved during the Beijing Olympics is much more than Olympic medals for his country. There were no male Asian swimmers who won Olympic gold in the 400-meter freestyle before Park. In this sense, he is a game changer.
Park became one of the greatest sports stars of all time at home in Korea. The 18-year-old swimmer earned the nickname Marine Boy after the namesake Japanese animation made by Fuji TV in 1969. In the animation, Marine Boy, the lead character, is a hero who teamed up with dolphins and mermaids to save the underwater world from villains.
There were highs and lows in his career in between but Park’s heyday had continued until the 2012 London Olympics in which he secured two silver medals in the men’s 400-meter and 200-meter freestyle.
His silver in the 400-meter race was dramatic. Park was initially disqualified for what was ruled as a false start in a qualifying race after finishing first in the preliminary heat on the previous day. Hours later, he had been reinstated as a finalist and grabbed silver. The initial ruling was controversial. Former Olympic champion Ian Thorpe, then a commentator for the BBC, said Park was blameless.
His career showed signs of a downward curve after the London Olympics and he plunged to rock bottom in 2014 when he tested positive for testosterone. The doping scandal took a toll on his career. He claimed he was unaware of the injection of the banned substance while seeking chiropractic treatment, insisting his doctor confirmed it was not a banned substance. He was slapped with an 18-month ban by the global swimming body FINA. The suspension was lifted in March 2016.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the national Olympic committee, prohibited the swimmer from competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics for his violations of the banned substance, although the suspension was lifted. Park took legal action to participate in the Olympics. The court cleared him and gave the green light to his competing in the Rio Olympics. In Rio, he was crushed and was eliminated in all preliminary heats in which he competed.
At home, there’s still criticism about him for the doping scandal.
In a column titled “Park Tae-hwan’s Revenge? Disgusting,” Jeong Hee-jun, a professor of physical education at Dong-a University in Busan, alleged that Park was childish and unapologetic.
“He claimed he didn’t know what he took was a banned substance. This is ridiculous. Athletes pay extra attention to medications they are injected with,” Jeong said. He said Park made a case for his participation in the Olympics after the doping scandal but this is nonsensical. “Doping is one of the worst types of things that disrupt fair competition in sports. It is cheating against other athletes and athletes with doping records are unethical and not conscientious,” he said.
His column was published in November last year after the media reported that Park was banned from competing by Kim Chong, former vice minister of culture and sports who is accused of being one of the people who colluded with Choi Soon-sil, regarding his efforts to participate in the Rio Olympics.
Jeong said Park seemed to have leaked the recordings of his conversation with Kim to the media and alleged it’s a plot to cause trouble for the official.
Although the vast majority of Koreans still maintain their unwavering support for the Olympic champion, such criticism remains a hurdle for Park to succeed in restoring his good name as a hero athlete.