Bobby Finke walked away from the Paris Olympic Games as the back-to-back champion in the 1500 free, the world record holder in the same event, and USA’s only individual male gold medalist in swimming. The distance phenom walks us through his experience in Paris, from the bittersweet feeling of earning silver in the 800 to topping the podium on the last day of competition.
Finke also shows his fun side, admitting just how bad his “off” practices can get and reflecting on his limited relay experience as a distance swimmer. He proposed having a mixed 4×50 free relay in which you can only participate in if you swam a distance event at the Olympics.
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In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.
Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com
I hope he was kidding
LOL, we had one “friendly” (i.e., the other team was so much better than us that the outcome was a foregone conclusion) in-conference dual meet when I was in college where the coaches added extra events to spice things up. One of the extra events was a 4×25 freestyle relay where each team had to enter three relay teams:
1) Your four best sprinters
2) Your four best distance swimmers
3) Your four best divers
There was usually solid competition between the distance swimmers and the divers…
The really big variable was whether all four of your divers could figure out how to put on a cap and googles.
Great interview, and what a nice guy!
Savior of the 120-year run of individual men’s swimming gold medal at the Olympics.
Clutch Stud.
Id love to see 50 only swimmers swim the 1500. Proud, Mannadou, Fratus, MA etc
Yes! This is the version of this “trading places” I’d pay to see.
Just make sure the wheelchairs and stretchers are on standby for once they finish
Oxygen masks too
To take the 4×50 relay idea literally, the cut would need to be qualifying for the B cut I presume?
I wonder how many 400 or even 200 free swimmers COULD qualify if it meant to get on that relay.
Like Id imagine Luke Hobson could get the 1500 Olympic cut. Could Dressel? Could peak 2021 Dressel? At the time he was a likely Olympic Trials finalist in the 2free and seemed to have a pretty reasonable ‘easy’ speed.
Obviously he wont enjoy it. But Id definitely pay to watch him and similar people take a pass at it. Would be funny to see who different countries would get to swim to try to (and actually qualify).
As… Read more »
Yeah it was clearly a joking idea, and it should NOT be in the Olympics. But I do think it would be fun. We did “Weightmen” 4×100 relays in track where you had to have a certain standard in the shot put, discus, or hammer throw and those were fun. It wasn’t just a bunch of decathaletes either since those guys needed a lot more. There were some big dudes running way faster than you expected in some of those.
To continue with the serious take on it, just for the mental exercise. I would think a least a few of the commenters on SwimSwam would be for it. The ones who are always bringing up that distance swimming isn’t… Read more »
Would love to see Pan compete in the 1500 and beat the pants off Finke for the win in a WR time, then do the 4 x 50 mixed relay and smash the USA team for a double dose of “take that Swimswam”.
The drug development isn’t there yet. But don’t put it past them for 2028.
Pan is a great swimmer, but his biggest strength (from what I’ve seen) is his massive kick. Even if he trains for it, he probably can’t maintain that for a 1500 (although it would help on the last 100). So, I wouldn’t count on him being WR level in that race.
As long as he can anchor