Rim Ju-song

Rim Ju-song (born 31 October 1995^[1]) is a North Korean swimmer.^[2] He was selected to be North Korea's sole representative for the country's first ever participation in the Paralympic Games, at the London 2012 Summer Games.^[3]

At the time when he was selected, he was living in Beijing. By the time North Korea received clearance to compete in London, it was "too late to qualify for most events, but swimming was an exception". Thus North Korea's representative would have to be a swimmer. Rim, who did not know how to swim, began to learn the crawl stroke in April 2012, reportedly with great difficulty at first, and the breaststroke in May.^[4]

Rim is a left arm and left leg amputee, and also suffers disability to his right leg and right foot, following "an accident on a construction site" at the age of five. He was able to make the Games upon receiving a wildcard invitation from the International Paralympic Committee, and with financial support from the British embassy in Pyongyang.^[3] He competed in freestyle swimming in the S6 disability category.^[1] His time in qualifying prior to the Games (disregarded as he was invited to the Games notwithstanding) was 1:10.00, i.e. 35.3 seconds slower than the slowest actual qualifier.^[5]

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