Park, who only turned 17 in late September, received 231 votes of the 869 votes cast by journalists covering the 15-day spectacular in the Qatari capital and was a clear winner from Chinese gymnast Yang Wei with his 99 votes.
Yang and his compatriot, swimmer Pang Jiaying, both won four gold medals in the Games - again the most by any athlete - with Indian shooter Jaspal Rana splitting the pair in the journalists' vote after his three gold.
The Korean schoolboy thoroughly deserves the accolade after his exploits at the Hamad Aquatic Centre which saw him win medals - three gold, one silver and three bronze - in all of the seven events he entered.
Park's first gold came in the men's 200m freestyle on 3 December after he powered down the final length to break his own Asian record with a time of 1:47.12 - some 0.39 seconds inside the benchmark he set in August.
This made Park the first Korean gold medallist in swimming since the 1994 edition in Hiroshima, although this was only the beginning as the following night he anchored the 4x200m freestyle to win the bronze medal behind Japan and China.
On 5 December he was back to winning ways again in the 400m freestyle, taking control before half distance to finish in 3:48.44, a couple of seconds outside his own Asian record this time.
Park then was back in the pool 80 minutes later to anchor Korea to another relay bronze, this time in the 4x100m freestyle event - the second of three relay bronze medals the teenager would win at Doha 2006.
The 100m freestyle event is not Park's best, but he still managed to claim the silver medal behind Chinese swimmer Chen Zuo, who broke his own Asian record to deny the Korean a potential clean sweep of the freestyle events.
However Park had saved his best till the final day of the swimming programme on 7 December when he brought the crowd to their feet with his performance in the longest event for men - the gruelling 1500m freestyle.
Park and Zhang Lin of China matched each other stroke for stroke for the first 1000m, leaving the other finalists trailing in their wake, before the Korean began to pull clear and power towards another gold.
However it wasn't just gold the Korean was after, but also the Asian record of 15:00.27 set by Zhang in November 2005. You could cut the tension with a knife as the crowd kept one eye on Park and one on the giant scoreboard's clock.
As he made the final turn it was clear the record would fall, the question was by how much and whether Park would become the first Asian - and 18th overall - to break the 15 minute barrier.
In the end he did so easily, clocking 14:55.03 to slash more than five seconds off Zhang's record as the Chinese swimmer came home eight seconds behind Park for the silver medal - his third behind the Korean.
However Park had little time to celebrate the swim of his life as just 20 minutes later he was back in the final event - the 4x100m medley relay. If he was tired, it didn't show as he powered down the anchor leg to earn Korea another bronze.
The seven-medal haul makes Park the most successful Korean swimmer at a single Asian Games and makes him one to watch at next year's World Championships and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
For now though, Park could be forgiven for enjoying a well-earned rest with his feet up in front of the LCD TV that he receives as MVP along with a trophy and a cheque for USD50,000.
15th Asian Games, Doha 2006
Posted December 17th, 2006 by COBA
