Sunday, May 8, 2022

Can Finke go faster?

 

Ever since his two dramatic come-from-behind-with-a-blistering-last-lap gold-medal-winning swims at the Tokyo Olympics in the 800 and 1500 meter freestyle, I've been keeping track of Bobby Finke's swimming feats.

He had a less than fantastic 1650 at the NCAA championships a couple of weeks ago (even he said it wasn't that great, and he was recovering from a recent COVID-19 infection), so I was curious how he'd perform at the international trials last week.

He performed quite well.  His 1500 meter freestyle was 14:45 and change, which is only six seconds slower than his winning time in Tokyo.  So will he be able to go faster at the Worlds?  I would think so.  The question is whether he (presumably being pushed by Wellbrock and Paltrinieri) could challenge Sun Yang's somewhat amazing, and possibly questionable, world record of 14:31, set in 2012.  

It'll be fun to find out.



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