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The man to beat in the 1500m men’s freestyle is Bobby Finke.
The Tampa, Fla., native is now a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and world record holder, after defending his title in the event on Sunday.
Finke touched the wall for the final time at 14:30.67, beating the previous record by just 0.35 seconds.
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Finke held a half-a-second lead at the midway point and was ahead of world record pace, but Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri. But Finke turned on the jets, increasing his lead to 1.3 seconds with 500 meters to go and getting over two seconds ahead of the record pace.
Finke eventually lost his big lead on the world record, but the Italian was never able to catch up, as he finished 3.88 seconds behind Finke for silver (at a point, Paltrinieri, too, was ahead of a record pace).
Finke failed to go back-to-back in the 800-meter free earlier in the Games, settling for the silver by just over half a second. He admitted after his world record he was “kind of p—ed” about the silver, perhaps fueling his fire for Sunday.
It’s the seventh gold medal for Americans in the swimming pool, and the 26th overall – it was a wire-to-wire victory for Finke.
The seven golds tied the USA with Australia for the most in swimming, although they’ve had a much higher success rate, as they’ve earned just 17 total medals.
Finke is the third American to win gold on Sunday, joining Scottie Scheffler on the golf course and cyclist Kristen Faulkner.
Finke made his Olympic debut in Tokyo at just the age of 21, but put himself on the map by winning two golds.
Now at 24, he’s already a three-time gold medalist – expect to see much, much more of this young talent, and be on the lookout for him to become a household name.
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