The emergence of An is a welcoming sight for a country that has never produced an internationally competitive female swimmer. Park Tae-hwan, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion in the 400m freestyle, has been the one-man wrecking crew.

An has been dubbed in some quarters as the female version of Park, though An herself said she doesn't yet deserve the comparison.

"He's been such a great athlete, and I am just starting out my career," An said. "I watched tapes of my races at the world championships, and I realized I still have a lot of work to do technically."

One thing Park and An do have in common is that both have been coached by Australian Michael Bohl. Though Park is currently training with another coach, An has been working with Bohl since 2015.

An said the coach was quite pleased with her performance, particularly because she met her target lap times.

"Before races, coach Bohl always set lap times for me to meet, and this was the first time I met all my targets," she said. "He said my races were perfect."

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo may be a bit too far down the road for An, who did say she'd like to reach the pinnacle.

"As an athlete, I want to stand at the top (of the podium)," she said. "But I'll take it one step at a time, with the Asian Games next year and the world championships a year after that." (Yonhap)