Bobby Finke Wins First Olympic Gold For U.S. Men’s Swimming At Paris 2024

NANTERRE, France — Coming to the Olympic Games Paris 2024, men on the U.S. swimming team had won at least one gold medal in an individual event in every Olympiad since the Olympic Games Paris 1900. But by the final day of swimming in Paris, they had yet to win one.

Until Bobby Finke stepped onto the pool deck.

The defending Olympic gold medalist in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle held off Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy to bring home his third Olympic gold medal in world-record time — and fourth medal total. Finke won silver in the 800 freestyle earlier this week, to go with his two golds from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in the distance freestyle events.

“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. “To be able to do that, listen to it, hand over my heart, it was a dream.”

For Finke, the pressure to be the clutch performer for the U.S. men’s team was a motivator. The 24-year-old had read all the articles and comments on the swimming website, SwimSwam.com, and knew he was his team’s last chance at individual gold at Paris 2024. 

“At the 300 mark, I was maybe a body length (ahead of Paltrinieri), and I was like, I can't let this go now,” said Finke. “I can't be the guy who got run down after I do all the running down. So that was a big factor in my mind.”

Paltrinieri is the Olympic Games Rio 2016 gold medalist and three-time world champion in the 1,500 freestyle. At the 2022 world championships, the Italian beat Finke for the world title. 

In Paris, it was Finke who got to the wall first, clocking 4:30.67 and taking 0.35 of a second off a 12-year-old world record. Although the race seemed close, with Paltrinieri in the hunt, Finke had a 3.88-second lead by the end. Daniel Wiffen from Ireland—  who out-touched Finke for the win in the 800 freestyle earlier this week — claimed the bronze.

The world record was not a goal for Finke. He caught glimpses of the board during the race and knew he was ahead of world-record time. 

“I knew I was on pace, but it was not my focus because I knew (Paltrinieri) could come home really quick. My focus was really just to try and do the best I could and get my hand on the wall.”

In the previous seven nights at Paris’s La Défense Arena, American men had won six medals in individual events: three silver and three bronze. Only the six men on the 4x100 freestyle relay team (in the heats and finals) and the four who helped the mixed relay team win gold had heard the Star Spangled Banner play as they stood atop the podium.

Even the men’s medley relay team — undefeated in Olympic competition since the event debuted at the Olympic Games Rome 1960 — ceded the title to China and claimed silver instead.

This not-as-golden performance at the Paris Olympic Games is not a sign of weakness, however. Rather, the swimmers see it as a sign of the sport’s strength.

“The world's getting faster, and I think it's a really good thing,” explained Finke. “It's a really healthy thing for the sport. If one country is always dominating, I can't really sit there and say the sport is growing. 

“So as much as it sucks that we're not dominating anymore, it's good for the sport.”

In the 14 men’s individual events on the Olympic program, swimmers from seven other countries won Olympic gold medals, including two for Italy and two for Hungary. And Léon Marchand, who trains in the U.S. with Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps’ coach), won four Olympic gold medals in four individual event.

“The wealth has just been spread around,” explained Caeleb Dressel, nine-time Olympic gold medalist who swam the butterfly leg of the medley relay (and won two gold medals earlier in the week as part of the men’s 4x100 freestyle and the mixed medley relays). “I don't think we're getting any worse, per se. It's good for the sport to have the whole world involved.”

Dressel cited the 2024 Olympic medley relay that started shortly after Finke won his gold medal in the 1,500. Four countries shared the lead throughout the race. 

“That was a very exciting race up until the very last leg,” pointed out Dressel. “I don't think anyone knew who it was going to be.”

As the swimmers end the Games, most are looking forward to a well-deserved rest. Two of the U.S. men on the medley relay team — Nic Fink, 31, and Ryan Murphy, 29 — will welcome their first children in the coming months, and Dressel is already a father. 

Even with other responsibilities pulling him from the pool, Murphy — already a three-time Olympian and nine-time Olympic medalist — likes the idea of staying in the sport for another Olympic quad.

“When you see how the French fans were treating their French athletes here,” he said, “just trying to project what that would be like (at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028) with a venue twice the size, that's something that that's really, really appealing.”

Finke will soon leave Paris. But his podium mates — Paltrinieri and Wiffen — will compete in men’s open water swimming later this week. After winning the bronze medal in open water swimming at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Paltrinieri is an open water favorite for gold here in Paris. 

“I’m glad we don’t have to race Bobby!” said the Italian.

An award-winning freelance writer based in Vermont, Peggy Shinn is in Paris covering her eighth Olympic Games. She has contributed to TeamUSA.org since its inception in 2008.