SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who won a gold medal at the 400m freestyle event in Beijing Olympics, has moved to the United States for training, the Korea Times reported on Monday.

    Park, 20, left for the United States last weekend. He will practice at the University of Southern California (USC) for six weeks. He is to be trained by the USC Swimming team head coach Dave Salo, who has coached many long distance swimmers, such as Larsen Jensen, who earned the silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympic in Athens, the daily newspaper said.

    "I will train very hard to put in good performances at the World Championship. I hope my fans give me support and encouragement," Park was quoted as saying upon his departure from South Korea.

    Park is to focus on training for his main event - the 1500-meter race - rather than the 400-meter sprint, local media said.

    "First of all my goal is to break my record in the 1500 meters. Though I haven't shown good performances in that event, I will rebound and do better. I will try to cut my time by .1 seconds in the turnaround," Park said.