Paris Olympics: World Record By Bobby Finke Was Top Male Performance of Games

Bobby Finke -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Paris Olympics: Bobby Finke Capped Off Individual Swimming Slate By Taking Down 12-Year-Old World Record

Attempting dramatic final-length comebacks was no longer a winning strategy for Bobby Finke. Three years earlier in his first Olympics, Finke had caught fields of European veterans off guard as he sprinted ahead to clinch gold medals in the 800 free and 1500 free, but his younger rivals were ready for the trick. At the 2023 World Championships, Finke went stroke-for-stroke with Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui in the 1500 free for the entire race, only for Hafnaoui to touch him out by five hundredths at the finish.

And in his first final of the Paris Games, the 800 free, when Finke turned to his magical finish, he was able to run down Italian veteran Gregorio Paltrinieri, but Ireland’s Dan Wiffen had some juice saved in reserve, too. Wiffen accelerated enough to hold off Finke for gold by a half-second.

Finke still had the 1500 free coming up on the final day of competition, hoping that the doubled distance could help him outlast the field and win a second consecutive gold medal. The 24-year-old had not consciously planned a radical strategy shift, but he ended up flipping first after 50 meters, and he never surrendering the advantage. Right away, he dipped under world-record pace. Then and there, Finke made the instinctive decision to go.

“That really was not my strategy to go into the race,” Finke said. “I didn’t know how the race was going to play out, so I kind of saw I had a pretty decent lead at the 300 and I knew I kind of just had to keep going and hopefully try and make the guys hurt a little bit trying to catch up to me.”

Entering the final third of the race, Finke continued extending his lead, with Paltrinieri just over a second behind and Wiffen a full three seconds back, and he remained about two seconds under world-record pace. Watching from the deck, Finke’s coach, Anthony Nesty, knew the gold medal was decided. “The way we do things at Florida in training, he’s not going to fade,” Nesty said. “Sometimes you just have to believe in what you are doing.”

Bobby Finke (center) with fellow 1500 freestyle medalists Gregorio Paltrinieri and Dan Wiffen — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

The world record in the event belonged to China’s Sun Yang at 14:31.02, set at the 2012 Olympics, and Sun had finished his record-setting swim in 53.49 over the closing 100 meters of his record-breaking swim. As Finke entered the final two lengths of his own gold-medal run, he was two seconds under Sun’s pace, and even as the superimposed world-record line gradually ran down the American, he had his own finishing kick to call upon. Clocking 26.27 on the final lap, Finke finished in 14:30.67 for a new world record.

The win made Finke the fourth man to successfully defend gold in the 1500 free, joining fellow American Mike Burton (1968-1972) and Australians Kieren Perkins (1992-1996) and Grant Hackett (2000-2004). More significantly, Finke’s gold medal provided a huge boost for a struggling American men’s team.

Entering the 1500 free, the last individual swimming race held at La Défense Arena, the U.S. men had captured only seven medals, none of them individual gold, and they had gone four consecutive days without winning a medal. They were trying to avoid being shut out of individual gold for the first time since the 1900 Olympics, the second edition of the modern Games.

“I knew,” said Finke. “I was reading all the articles and all the comments and everything. I like reading that stuff. It kind of motivates me inside.”

Finke’s doubled sense of frustration, the neutralization of his come-from-behind strategy and the American men facing a gold-medal shutout, had propelled him to take down one of the oldest men’s world records on the books. Over the past four years, Finke has developed a reputation for swimming up to the level of his competition, for showing up at his best against global competition, but in the individual individual race in Paris, he set the bar and forced the rest of the world to give chase.

In the moments that followed securing gold, an uncharacteristically emotional Finke pumped his fists as he climbed out of the pool, his spot in distance swimming lore secured. His world record was one of just two individual marks set all week in Paris, and he uplifted the struggling U.S. men’s team, making this 14-and-one-half-minute race the top male performance of the Games.

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Bruce Lawrie

35 seconds ago

I agree….a fantastic swim!