PARIS — American iron-man Bobby Finke smashed the men’s 1,500 metres freestyle world record as he retained the Olympic gold medal in a thrilling swim that put the United States on top of the medal table at the Paris pool.
Veteran Swedish sprint star Sarah Sjoestroem powered to the women’s Olympic 50m freestyle gold to go with her 100m title. The 30-year-old, at her fifth Olympics, hit the wall first in 23.71sec. Australia’s Meg Harris (23.97) was second and China’s Zhang Yufei (24.20) third.
It was only Sjoestroem’s third career Olympic gold medal, compared to the 14 she has won at world championships.
After 30 lung-busting laps, Finke touched the wall in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds at La Defense Arena, eclipsing Sun Yang’s 12-year-old mark of 14:31.02 set at the London Games.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri took silver, 3.88 seconds behind Finke, with Daniel Wiffen, the 800m gold medallist, taking the bronze for Ireland. “I could see the world record line on the board a couple times,” Floridian Finke said according to Reuters.
“It wasn’t like I was trying to see it. I just happened to see it.
“I’m just happy I won. I had a lot of pressure going into the race.”
The 24-year-old became the first male swimmer to go back-to-back in the most gruelling pool event since Australia’s Grant Hackett in 2000-04 and the first American since Mike Burton in 1968-72.
Finke was also the defending champion in the 800m, but Wiffen beat him to become Ireland’s first male Olympic swimming champion.
Finke’s 1,500m win was a vital boost for the US team whose men had not won a single individual gold before the race and were under the microscope from home media.
“I was reading all the articles and all the comments and everything,” he said according to AFP.
“I like reading that stuff. It kind of motivates me inside.
“As much as it sucks that we’re not dominating anymore, I think it’s good for the sport and it shows how far the sport has come.”
Finke’s win gave the US their seventh gold medal of the meet, the team leapfrogging Australia to the top of the table on the last night of competition.
The US women then cemented top spot with an eighth gold in a dominant medley relay to cap the evening.
Finke marked his place among the titans of distance swimming with an aggressive swim which he led from start to finish.
He was a full body length ahead of Paltrinieri and Wiffen by the 300-metre mark.
Paltrinieri made a charge near the 600-metre mark and pulled up to Finke’s waist, but there was no stopping the American.
Ireland’s first men’s Olympic swimming champion, Wiffen had tipped a world record would be needed to take gold and hoped he would be the man.
It was Finke, though, producing something special to hold on for the world record and send the La Defense Arena crowd into hysteria.
“I really wanted to get on top of the podium again and hear the anthem all over again like I did for the first time in Tokyo,” said Finke.
“So to be able to do that, listen to it and hand over my heart, it was a dream.”
The United States set a new world record time as they powered to Olympic gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay with Australia taking silver and China bronze.
The Americans hit the wall in 3m 49.63, beating the previous record of 3:50.40 set by the US team at the 2019 world championships.
It was the perfect end to a strong Games for the American women with the team of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske all adding to their medal haul.
Canada’s Kylie Masse grabbed an early lead in the opening backstroke leg but Smith handed over to King with the Americans in the lead.
King extended the USA’s lead over the Canadians with the highly fancied Australian team in third.
Walsh, silver medallist in the 100m butterfly, opened up an unsurmountable lead before Huske, who won gold in the 100m fly and silver in the 100m freestyle, made sure of the world record and the gold with a strong anchor leg.
The US leads the medal table in this event with 11 golds and it has won a medal at every Olympic Games, with the exception of Moscow 1980, which they boycotted.
