Han Kyu-chul (also Han Gyu-cheol, Korean: ? ??; born December 24, 1981) is a South Korean former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events.
He is a two-time Olympian (2000 and 2004), and an eight-time bronze medalist at the Asian Games (2002 and 2006).
Han made his first South Korean team, as an eighteen-year-old junior, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
There, he failed to reach the semifinals in any of his individual events, finishing nineteenth in the 200 m butterfly (1:59.85), and thirty-third in the 200 m individual medley (2:06.42).When South Korea hosted the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, Han won a total of four medals, including two in the freestyle relays.
He also enjoyed his teammate Cho Sung-Mo by giving the Koreans a 2–3 finish in the 1500 m freestyle, earning him a bronze in 15:22.38.At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Han shortened his program, swimming only in the men's 200 m freestyle.
He cleared a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:50.54 from the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
He challenged seven other swimmers in heat five, including three-time Olympian Jacob Carstensen of Denmark.
Han rounded out the field to last place by two hundredths of a second (0.02) behind Hungary's Tamás Szucs, outside his entry time of 1:52.28.
Han failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-third overall in the preliminaries.At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Han added four more bronze medals to his collection for a total of eight.
He also helped out his South Korean team, including three-time champion Park Tae-Hwan, to defend their medals from Busan in the 400 and 800 m freestyle relays.