Teenage sensation Park Tae-hwan scored the hottest victory by winning South Korea’s first-ever swimming Olympic gold medal in the 400m freestyle and became the first Asian male to win an Olympic medal in freestyle in 48 years.

Dubbed Korean “marine boy”, 19-year old Park secured an Asian record of 3:41:86 at the Beijing Olympics, making waves as the country’s first Olympic swim champ and the pride of Asia. The victory cemented his status as the world’s 400-m freestyle champion after winning the World Championships 2007 in Melbourne with a time of 3:44:30.

It has been a stellar rise for the boy wonder who started in the sport at the age of five on a doctor’s recommendation that it could improve his asthma.

Park also bagged a silver medal in the 200-metre freestyle event and set a new Asian world record of 1:44:85, finishing 1.89 seconds behind the phenomenal Phelps. Park’s only 3.2 cm taller than the average 1.78m of Korean national swimmers since 1998 and his shoulder width is 46 cm, a noticeable 6.32 cm wider. His arms fully stretched measure 1.9m, about 5 cm longer than the average.