Who is Park Tae-hwan?  He is South Korea's ace in swimming, used to be the king of free style of the world, having won several gold medals in major tournaments: Olympic, World Championship, Asia Games, and so on.  Therefore, Park has become the hero, the pride, and the icon of Korea; even the swimming gym as the venue of 17th Asian Games is named after him.  Actually, he had been over the hill in swimming pool, already defeated by Chinese athlete Sun Yang in 2012 London Olympic.  Apparently, Koreans hope Park could regain the national "glory" this time in Incheon 2014.

Nevertheless, Park acquitted himself not well in the Game, and he didn't win any gold medal for himself and for his countrymen.  I think he has done his best, but at only 25 he also has been a little bit too old for such a highly keen competition as in a game which some of the final results must rely on electronic devices to differentiate from one another.  Park used to be a whiz-kid in swim, not any more, at least he stands little chance to restore the status of his dominance in pools again.  It must be a bitter pill for Koreans to swallow because of their stupidity of extreme self-aggrandizement and collective inferiority complex combined.     

Mainland China would never name a stadium after Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, and Li Na like Korean did for Park, nor would the presidents send a congratulatory message immediately to an athlete who just won a gold medal in the game of a major tournament like the leaders of Taiwan did.  ( Even in the States there are roads named after athletes such as Jackie Robinson, Rolan Ryan, and so on.  But as far as I know even people like Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai are not endowed with such a privilege and honor in Mainland, except some Nationalist generals who sacrified their lives during Anti-Japanese War.) 

Now you see the difference.