Badger Swim Club is pleased to welcome Yousun Nam to the Badger Swim Team for the Spring season.
Yousun joins us from Seoul, South Korea. Yousun is the first Korean ever to make it to finals at the Olympics where she finished 7th overall in the IM 400 back in 2004 in Athens, which was only 4 years before Park Tae-hwan became South Korea’s first Olympic champion in Beijing. Yousun is the only Korean swimmer, other than Park, to have made it to 4 Olympics (2000, 2004, 2008, 2016).
With uncertainty about how much time she has left of her career as a swimmer, Yousun wanted to make sure to try everything she could within the time given, and the first on her bucket list was to train in the United States.
Yousun said that she didn’t know much about Badger, but had heard about Coach John Collins in swimming books, articles and knew of his success as a US National Swim team coach. She trusted him because of all this and was welcomed by Badger with open arms.
I am very honored to part fo the Badger family and am having the best time of my life as a swimmer, so far! -Yousun Nam
When asked about the difference in her training experience at home and here in the US with Badger, Yousun said, “When I look back on how I trained back at home, in Seoul, I think I let myself hold back, letting my age become an excuse. I used to train only 5~6 sessions a week, about 90 minutes tops per session. I would swim 5000~6000m per session, which isn’t that much, but the intensity was quite high. I made sure I swam at least 20% of the program at full race pace everyday.”
Youson says that “Coach John has encourage and motivated me that I can be better than I ever was before, and I believe him! It feels like the first time I fell in love with the sport, and I want to make the most out of this opportunity in every way possible.”
The entire Badger community welcomes Youson and is happy she will be with us for the next several months.
