TOKYO — With a dazzling burst of closing speed, Bobby Finke of the United States captured gold Thursday in the debut of the men’s 800-meter swimming freestyle at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri claimed the silver after leading most of the race, while the bronze went to Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine.
It was a thrilling finish. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock snatched the lead from Paltrinieri on the final flip, with Finke lurking back in fourth.
But the American turned on the speed at the end of the 16-lap race, passing all three swimmers ahead of him to take the gold.
“I had no idea I was going to do that,” Finke said. “I noticed with 10 meters off (the final turn) I was catching a little bit of ground, and that was the only motivation I needed.”
Finke’s winning time was 7 minutes, 41.87 seconds, just 0.24 ahead of Paltrinieri. Romachuk touched in 7:42.33, knocking Wellbrock back to fourth.
Finke’s victory was a big surprise for the Americans. He knocked about 6 seconds off his personal best coming into the Olympics to walk away with a historic gold.
He wasn’t thinking about the pain until he touched the wall.
“Your mind just kind of disappears and you’re blocking it out at the end,” Finke said.
The men’s 800 freestyle was added to the Olympic program for these games, marking the first time that approximate distance was contested by the men since there was an 880-yard race at the 1904 St. Louis Games.
Finke’s victory briefly pulled the U.S. ahead of Australia in the gold medal race at the Olympic pool, but Izaac Stubblety-Cook evened things up again with a victory in the 200 breaststroke.
Mirroring Finke’s finish, Stubblety-Cook rallied on the final lap to pass Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who went out fast and tried to hold on.
The winning time was an Olympic record of 2 minutes, 6.38 seconds, giving the team from Down Under their fifth gold of the swimming competition.
Kamminga was under world-record pace through the first 150 meters, but he faded to the silver in 2:07.01. The bronze went to Finland’s Matti Mattsson in 2:07.24.
American Nic Fink finished fifth.
Dressel wins 1st individual gold
In an Olympics where many of the favorites have faltered, Caeleb Dressel lived up to the hype.
Dressel claimed the first individual Olympic gold medal of his career with two furious laps of the pool Thursday morning, winning the 100-meter freestyle over defending champion Kyle Chalmers.
As is his style, Dressel dove into the pool and came up with the lead. He was still ahead at the lone flip, and turned away the Aussie’s bid for a second straight gold.
Dressel’s winning time was an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds — a mere six-hundredths of a second ahead of Chalmers, who had to settle for a silver this time.
“I wasn’t worried about anything,” Dressel said. “During the race there’s only so much you can do. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. I stuck to my race plan so if it got me first, OK, if it got me second, OK.”
The bronze was claimed by Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44), who added to his silver in the 100 backstroke.
The first three gold medals of Dressel’s career were all in the relays — two in Rio de Janeiro, another in the 4×100 free relay at the Tokyo Games.
Now, Dressel has earned a gold all by himself.
“It is a lot different. I guess I thought it would be, I just didn’t want to admit to it,” he said. “It’s a lot tougher. You have to rely on yourself, there’s no one to bail you out from a bad split.”
Dressel climbed atop the lane rope, a look of wonder on his face, and held up the index finger on each hand.
No. 1 indeed.
After Michael Phelps retired, Dressel emerged as the world’s dominant swimmer.
He turned in staggering performances at the last two world championships, earning seven gold medals at Budapest in 2017, followed by a six-gold, two-silver performance at Gwangju in 2019.
As important as those meets were, they’re not the Olympics.
He needed an individual gold to solidify his legacy.
Mission accomplished.
“These moments are a lot different than worlds,” Dressel conceded.
Dressel’s victory pulled the Americans ahead of the Aussies with six golds in Tokyo. They also led the overall medal tally with 20.
Zhang turned in a dominating performance to win China’s first swimming gold of these games in the women’s 200-meter butterfly. Her Olympic-record time of 2:03.86 put her more than a body length ahead of the pair of Americans, Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger.
The U.S. swimmers dueled back and forth for the silver, with Smith pulling ahead at the end to touch in 2:05.30. Flickinger earned the bronze in 2:05.65.
In the final event of the morning, Katie Ledecky was swimming for another gold in the 4×200 free relay, but the Americans were expected to face a big challenge from Ariarne Titmus and the powerful Australian women’s team.
U.S. women’s 3×3 hoops captures gold
Their scrapbooks and trophy cases are filled with memories from Final Fours, national titles, All-America honors and even some impressive showings in the pros.
Now, they have Olympic gold medals to go with all that.
The U.S. team of Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young took an early lead against the team from Russia, then held on for an 18-15 victory Wednesday to win the title in the debut of 3-on-3 basketball at the Olympics.
“In 10 years, we’ll look back and say ‘Damn, we did that,’” Dolson said. “Hopefully we started something.”
Dolson did the honors during the medals ceremony, taking the gold prizes and placing them over her teammates’ necks. They stood with hands over hearts during the national anthem.
Much as they did in the final, the Americans dominated through most of the five-day tournament. They played nine games and lost only one.
Plum, who became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history during her four years at Washington, led the way in this event, as well. She scored 55 points over the nine games.
“I didn’t think this was going to happen,” said the guard, who suffered an Achilles injury last year and has been on a long road back. “I didn’t think it was in the cards with my Achilles. And for Lou to get COVID and Jackie to come in. So many things. This group kept dealing with it.”
“Lou,” is Katie Lou Samuelson, whose positive COVID-19 test earlier this month forced a quick shuffling of the roster and opened a spot for Young.
All four players who made it to Tokyo are in the midst of successful WNBA careers. All made it there after college careers that made stops at the Final Four. Dolson played at UConn, Gray at South Carolina and Young was at Notre Dame. Of the four, Plum is the only one who didn’t win a national title in college.
The gold medal seems like much more than a consolation prize.
“USA Basketball didn’t quit on me,” Plum said. “So, this would probably rank the highest so far.”
When the U.S. game ended, Plum got in a hug huddle with her teammates, then they made it over to the stands for a visit with IOC President Thomas Bach.
“Everyone knows us for 5-on-5,” Dolson said. “I think we started something special with this as well.”