Paris Olympics: Bobby Finke’s heroic world record saves a century-old streak for USA swimming

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PARIS — The century-old streak began at a man-made lake in St. Louis, then traversed eras and the globe. From 1904 until the present, at every Olympics the United States entered, American male swimmers have won individual gold. The streak peaked in the 1920s and 70s. It included a sweep in 1948. It survived downswings in the 1980s and 90s. It roared again in the 21st century, until, here at the 2024 Games, it teetered on the brink of collapse.

But in the last of 14 men’s individual events at Paris La Défense Arena, Bobby Finke swooped in to salvage it.

He was well aware of the looming humiliation. “Oh yeah, I knew,” he said. He responded with a world record.

Finke won the 1500-meter freestyle Sunday, avenging a defeat at 800 meters earlier in the week. He sped ahead of the field over the first 300 meters, then held off a chasing pack over the middle half of the race. He pushed far ahead of Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri over the final 500, and occasionally, when he breathed, his eyes would stray to a long horizontal scoreboard at the top of the arena, where he could see his head and shoulders beyond the yellow line tracking world-record pace.

Finke hadn’t targeted the 12-year-old record. And even when he saw the line, it wasn’t his focus. But he knew 2012 Sun Yang’s 14:31.02 was within reach.

He also knew, once he raced out to an early lead: “I can’t let go of this now.” Because he knew how much history was on the line.

The streak of individual golds had spanned 29 Olympic Games. It began when there were single-digit swimming events. As the Olympic program swelled to 14 individual disciplines per gender, it seemed capable of sustaining itself forever.

But it wobbled for the better part of nine disappointing days at the 2024 Olympics. USA Swimming sent 26 male athletes to this temporary pool west of Paris. Heading into Sunday, not a single one had claimed gold. Eight of 13 individual events had ended without an American in the top three. Two ended without an American in the final at all. Others yielded eighth-place finishes.

There had been flops in preliminary heats and semifinals. There had been high-profile misses. But more so, there had been a steady stream of less-than-stellar performances. The decline of U.S. men’s swimming — or, perhaps, the stagnation of the U.S. program and the progress of others around the world — was set to crescendo as a topic of conversation for weeks, months, perhaps years to come.

“We have to go back and look at our preparation headed into the meet, and be better,” U.S. men’s head coach Anthony Nesty said, when pressed on why the U.S. hadn’t been better.

But Finke, with what Nesty described as “courage,” muted those conversations. He helped lift Team USA to the top of swimming’s gold-medal table. And he spared the U.S. men some embarrassment.

Beyond the streak, there had been plenty of good American swimming at these Olympics. “It wasn’t a bad meet at all,” U.S. sprinter Caeleb Dressel argued. “The wealth has just been spread around. I don’t think we’re getting any worse, per se.” U.S. stars still produced 28 medals for Team USA overall. American women won four individual golds in the pool. Relays also triumphed. As a team, they proved that the U.S. remains the deepest swimming nation in the world.

The men had struggled, though, to get to the top step of podiums. Nic Fink’s impressive swim in the 100-breaststroke final had yielded silver. Carson Foster, Ryan Murphy and Luke Hobson settled for bronze. In the men’s medley relay, an Olympic event the U.S. had never lost, a Dressel-led foursome relinquished gold to China.

On the women’s side, Americans had been foiled by a few megastars. Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Torri Huske, Gretchen Walsh and Katie Grimes all had strong meets; but in six separate finals, they’d simply been beaten, often narrowly, by Canada’s Summer McIntosh, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown or Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström. They left with heads held high.

The men, on the other hand, had struggled. Dressel, after a rocky few years, couldn’t defend any of his three individual golds. Ryan Murphy fell short of expectations. First-time Olympians underwhelmed. Chase Kalisz, the defending Olympic champion in the 400-meter individual medley, didn’t even make it back to the final (though he had little hope of outracing Léon Marchand anyway).

Prior to Sunday, Finke was part of that long list. He’d been dethroned by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen in the 800. He was living, flourishing proof of how darn difficult it is to defend an Olympic title — and how deep the field of international competitors now is.

He was also “disappointed after the 800. I really wanted to get on top of the podium again,” he said.

And he had been “reading all the articles, and all the comments,” about U.S. dominance waning.

“I like reading that stuff,” he said. “It kinda motivates me inside.”

Salvaging the streak became part of it his motivation. It also upped pressure. “It was both,” Finke said. “I knew going into the race, I was the last individual swim for the guys.” It was “in the back my mind,” he said, “helping me keep pushing throughout the race.”

It pushed him as Paltrinieri closed the gap between first and second to 0.54 seconds at the 800-meter mark of this nearly-mile-long slog. “They started catching up to me, I was getting a little worried,” Finke said. He answered the worry by finding another gear, widening his lead to a full body length, then more.

Three years earlier, in Tokyo, he had wowed the world with his closing speed, which became his signature tactic. Here, inspired by the specter of history, he opened and closed with speed — his three fastest 50s were the first two and the last one — and rescued the streak with a world record.