Bobby Finke ended a U.S. men’s pool drought in style Sunday night, winning gold and breaking the world record in the 1500m freestyle. The news got better for the Americans shortly after, when the women broke the record in the 4x100m medley.
Fiske’s was the first individual men’s swimming gold for the U.S. at this Olympics. Had they been disqualified, it would have been the first time since 1900 that an American had failed to win an individual gold in the pool, with the exception of the 1980 Moscow Games, which the U.S. boycotted.
Finke ran the entire race at world record pace, accelerating in the final length to set a new record. He touched the ball in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds, breaking the record of 14:31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang at the 2012 London Olympics.
Silver went to Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in 14:34.55, while favourite Daniel Wiffen of Ireland could not match his triumph in the 800m freestyle. He was never a factor and settled for bronze in 14:39.63, narrowly holding off Hungary’s David Betlehem for the final podium spot.
Lilly King made up for a disappointing performance in her individual events by leading the Americans to the lead in the breaststroke portion of the women’s 4x100m individual medley. Then it was Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, two of the biggest American stars at these Games, who took home the win in 3:49.63, breaking the record of 3:50.40 set by the U.S. at the 2019 world championships. Regan Smith started off the backstroke, finally clinching her first career gold medal.
Katie Ledecky, Finke’s training partner, celebrated in the crowd as she watched her teammates break the two world records.
After the race, Finke said he was encouraged to start fast. “My coaches told me to just start early and it ended up working out pretty well,” he said.
Finke became the first male swimmer to compete in the grueling 30-lap event twice in a row since Australia’s Grant Hackett in 2000 and 2004. He also became the first American to do so since Mike Burton in 1968 and 1972. The 24-year-old also won gold in the 800-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games.
Finke set the third swimming world record of the Olympics and gave the U.S. team a much-needed boost, which led the medal table but had been plagued by a series of disappointing results from some of its best swimmers.
It wasn’t all good news for the American men, however. Their 64-year unbeaten run in the men’s 4x100m medley ended when China pulled off a seismic victory in the evening’s next race.
The Chinese quartet of Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun and Pan Zhanle beat the US by 0.55 sec. to take bronze. France took bronze.
Apart from 1980, the US had never been defeated in the men’s medley final since its inaugural event in 1960 at the Rome Olympics.