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TOKYO – Even Bobby Finke didn’t know he could swim so fast.
But his uncanny ability to find a second gear in the pool – especially in the final 50 meters of a long-distance race – resulted in two surprise gold medals at this Olympics for Finke, a 21-year-old swimmer from Tampa, Fla. .
Finke, first time Olympic athlete, men won 800m freestyle Thursday. Sunday, 1,500 free wins. The out-of-the-box performances took everyone by surprise—his rivals, their coaches, even Finke himself.
“I didn’t know I had these floats in me,” said a smiling Finke on Sunday. “When I realized I was still with the kids during the 800 qualifiers, I was trying to ride the wave and have fun.”
Riding the wave made Finke one of the surprises of the Games. His win time at 1,500 on Sunday was 9.05 seconds faster than his best time this year. The men’s and women’s coaches of the United States team, Dave Durden and Greg Meehan, were then asked if they knew Finke could do that much speed. They raised their hands and laughed.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the 800 go the way it did,” Meehan said. “But we definitely saw it coming within miles. I think everyone in the building knew what had happened in the last 100 kilometers.”
Finke became the first American to win a gold medal in the men’s 1,500 since Michael O’Brien in 1984, and then said he hoped his performance would draw more attention to the event—a grueling marathon in a sport where sprinters are often stars—he returned. United States of America.
“Distance swimming within the U.S. has been relatively poor over the past five years,” Finke said. “I hope a lot of little kids get inspired and come here and kick some ass.”
After Sunday’s victory, Finke said it was difficult to stay in the leading group in the first laps of the race. But seeing that he could really keep up with the leaders, Florian Wellbrock of Germany and Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine, he began to build some confidence.
At that point, his plan was to “just hold on and finally kick my ass,” he said. The sight of Finke, who came to the fore in the final lap, made a loud noise through the crowd of swimmers and coaches watching from the stands. That voice grew when Finke took the lead on his last comeback.
“I saw how the three of us were head-to-head and I knew I had the ability to shift gears from my 800 to the last 50 years,” Finke said.
He ran the final 50 meters in 25.78 seconds—one second faster than any other split by the other swimmers in the race—and was still moving away when he touched the wall.
When asked at the post-race press conference what he thought of Finke’s race, silver medalist Romanchuk turned to Finke and said, “I don’t like guys who swim the last 50 that fast.” And then everyone laughed.
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