Paris Olympics: Bobby Finke sets world record in 1500m and saves a century-old streak for the United States

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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 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 got to the wall in 14:30.67, just under the previous 12-year-old record of 14:31.02.

And he ensured that the streak will live on at least another four years.

It had 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. And 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.

But Finke muted those conversations, lifted Team USA toward the top of the swimming medal count, and spared the U.S. men some embarrassment.

Beyond the streak, there had still been plenty of good American swimming at these Olympics. U.S. stars produced dozens of 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.

They 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.

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. Caeleb 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.

On the final night of competition, however, he wrote a very different story, and topped off the meet with a world record.