SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Four-time Asian Games winner Cho Oh-ryun of South Korea has died of heart attack at 56, hospital said Tuesday.

    Cho was found lying on the floor by his wife, Lee Seong-ran, at his home in Haenam, located on the tip of the Korean Peninsula. He was rushed to Haenam General Hospital and given cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was declared dead at 12:45 p.m., according to the officials.

    Cho clinched four gold medals in the 400 meters and 1,500m freestyle events at the 1970 and 1974 Asian Games.

    Cho swam across the Korea-Japan strait in 1980. He was planning to repeat the challenge using another sea route between the countries in August next year and had been training.

    He also successfully swam across the Dover Strait between England and France in 1982.