#BOBBY FINK FREE#

Mirroring Finke's finish, albeit over a much shorter distance, Stubblety-Cook rallied on the final lap to pass Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who started fast and tried to hold on. The men's 800 freestyle was added to the Olympic program for these games, marking the first time that approximate distance was contested by the men since there was an 880-yard race at the 1904 St. 'Your mind just kind of disappears and you're blocking it out at the end,' Finke said. He wasn't thinking about the pain until he touched the wall. Over two swims, Finke knocked about 6 seconds off his personal best coming into the Olympics to walk away with a historic gold. Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine touched in 7:42.33 to take the bronze, knocking Wellbrock back to fourth. 'I noticed with 10 meters off I was catching a little bit of ground, and that was the only motivation I needed.'įinke's winning time was 7 minutes, 41.87 seconds, just 0.24 ahead of Paltrinieri. 'I had no idea I was going to do that,' Finke said. Finke's final 50 was 26.39 - nearly 2 seconds faster than anyone else. Germany's Florian Wellbrock snatched the lead from Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri on the final flip, with Finke lurking back in fourth.īut the American turned on the speed at the end of the 16-lap race, passing all three swimmers ahead of him to take the gold.

'These moments are a lot different than worlds,' Dressel conceded.įinke pulled out his victory with a dazzling burst on the final lap. He needed an individual gold to solidify his legacy. He turned in staggering performances at the past two world championships, earning seven gold medals at Budapest in 2017, followed by a six-gold, two-silver performance at Gwangju in 2019.Īs important as those meets were, they're not the Olympics. 1 indeed.ĭressel's gold was the second of the morning for the Americans, who got a surprise victory from Bobby Finke in the Olympic debut of the men's 800 free.Īlso winning golds: Australia's Izaac Stubblety-Cook in the men's 200 breaststroke and China's Zhang Yufei in the women's 200 butterfly.Īfter Michael Phelps retired, Dressel emerged as the world's dominant swimmer.

Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Imagesĭressel climbed atop the lane rope, a look of wonder on his face, and held up the index finger on each hand - No. You have to rely on yourself, there's no one to bail you out from a bad split.' Caeleb Dressel won the men's 100-meter freestyle in 47.02 seconds, setting an Olympic record. I guess I thought it would be, I just didn't want to admit to it,' he said. Now, Dressel has earned a gold all by himself.

#BOBBY FINK FREE#

The first three gold medals of Dressel's career were all in the relays: two in Rio de Janeiro, another in the 4x100 free relay at the Tokyo Games. The bronze was claimed by Russian Olympic Committee swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44), who added to his silver in the 100 backstroke. I stuck to my race plan so if it got me first, OK, if it got me second, OK.' Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. 'During the race there's only so much you can do. 'I wasn't worried about anything,' Dressel said. Dressel's winning time was an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds, a mere six-hundredths of a second ahead of Chalmers, who earned a silver medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

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