Swimming Ace Hwang Sun-woo Fails to Win Medal in 100-m Freestyle

Teenage swimming sensation Hwang Sun-woo failed to win a medal in the men's 100-m freestyle at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo despite making Korean swimming history.

Hwang finished fifth out of eight swimmers in the final race on Thursday with a time of 47.82 seconds, but he was still the first Korean and only the second Asian to make it to the final.

Caeleb Dressel of the U.S. took gold with an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds. Australia's Kyle Chalmers claimed silver with 47.08 seconds and Kliment Kolesenikov of ROC bronze with 47.44 seconds.

In the semifinals on Wednesday, he also set an Asian record of 47.56 seconds breaking the previous record of 47.65 seconds set in 2014 by Ning Zetao of China.

Hwang started swimming at the age of five in 2008, just as star swimmer Park Tae-hwan grabbed a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

He began to take the sport seriously when he was selected to compete at the National Sports Festival as a sixth-grader in 2015.