Bobby Finke has done it again.
The star swimmer won the gold medal in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle race on Sunday, Aug. 2, setting a world record in the progress with his time of 14:30.67.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri took the silver, and Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen earned bronze.
The medal makes Finke, 24, the only U.S. men’s swimmer to earn a gold medal in an individual race during the 2024 Olympics. He claimed the win on the last day of swimming competition.
It’s also his second medal of these Paris Games— he also earned the silver for the men’s 800-meter free on July 30.
Finke’s gold in the 1500-meters is a repeat of the 2020 Tokyo Games, when he also won the event.
The world record is made all-the-more impressive, as three-time medalist Gary Hall Sr. Said earlier this week that the depth of the pool at La Défense Arena would likely make it more difficult to set a world record.
“The reason is simple — the pool is not deep enough,” Hall Sr. explained, noting that the pool was “constructed at a depth of seven feet (2.16 meters), which is simply not deep enough to see the fastest swims possible.”
“With a shallower pool, all the waves, vortices and streams caused by the powerful swimmers churning down the lanes either get dissipated by the lane lines, overflow onto the gutters on the sides, or reflect off the bottom of the pool,” he said.
