Bobby Finke stuns field, wins gold in 800 free
TOKYO — Fifteen of 16 laps through the second-longest swimming race here at the Olympics, Bobby Finke was in fourth place, and just about everything Finke had done in the sport suggested that, heading to the final wall, he’d stay there.
The 21-year-old Floridian came to Tokyo with a personal-best 800-meter time of 7:48.22. It had been good enough to qualify him for his first Olympic Games. It was, however, more than six seconds off the world-leading pace.
Finke slashed a remarkable 5.5 seconds off it in preliminary heats, but still, that 7:42.72 ranked fourth in the world, and would have left him just off the medal stand after Thursday’s final. That’s where he was headed throughout it. He spent laps 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in fifth place. He swam the penultimate 50 meters faster than any other 50 meters he’d swum earlier in the race, but still, it only pulled him into fourth.
Then he kicked off the final turn, swam 10 meters, and thought: “Oh, I'm catching a little bit.”
His body was in pain. He pushed through. “Your mind just kinda disappears,” he said. “You're kinda blacking out a little bit.” He chased down Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri and Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk with a 26.39-second final 50, more than two seconds faster than he’d swum any other 50 on the day, and he won the first-ever men’s 800 at the Olympics. He stunned the swimming world; and perhaps even coaches, who went bonkers in the Tokyo Aquatics Center’s second deck; and did he surprise himself too?
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I had no idea I was gonna do that, honestly.”
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