2024 Olympic Previews: Finke the Favorite in 1500 FR

Breaking News, ‎Latest News  No matter who you’re backing in the men’s 1500 freestyle, we should all agree that the winning time will be much faster than the 14:39.65 Bobby Finke swam for Olympic gold in Tokyo. That’s not a knock on Finke’s swim, it’s just a sign of how far this event has come in the last three years. Seven of the performers on the all-time top ten list swam their mark after the Tokyo Games, five of them in the past 16 months alone. Breaking News, ‎Latest News , 2024 Olympic Previews: Finke the Favorite

The elephant in the room, of course, is that Ahmed Hafnaoui, the second-fastest swimmer in history, will not be in the race. At the 2023 World Championships, he and Finke went stroke for stroke over the back part of an electric 1500 freestyle final. At the touch, Hafnaoui got the better of Finke by five-hundredths. Hafnaoui won in 14:31.54, Finke took silver in 14:31.59 and the two exchanged caps in the water as they celebrated moving up to #2 and #3 all-time.

THE FAVOURITE?

Hafnaoui’s absence leaves the door wide open for Finke to defend his Olympic gold. He’s the only man in the race who has broken 14:32 and has a 1.21 second gap to the next fastest in the field, Gregorio Paltrinieri (14:32.80).

Finke set a U.S. Open record at the U.S. Olympic Trials, speeding ahead of the field to win the event comfortably in 14:40.38. It’s the second year in a row that Finke has set a U.S. Open record at the U.S. qualifying meet. He did the same at the 2023 U.S. Nationals, swimming a 14:42.81 before his historic swim in Fukuoka.

The magic of Hafnaoui and Finke’s performances is that they made the long-standing world record look even more vulnerable than Paltrinieri in 2022. After that final in Fukuoka, many thought Sun Yang’s mark would go down in Paris. But is that still possible without Hafnaoui in the field? After the race, both

After the race, both Hafnaoui and Finke talked about what a large role the other played in their performance. “[Hafnaoui] pushed me faster than I thought I could go,” said Finke. Losing Hafnoaui doesn’t just mean we’ve lost a swimmer who realistically could break that world record but Finke has lost the person best-suited to pushing him to that record. Breaking News, ‎Latest News

We know Finke best as the comeback king,

someone who lurks behind the front of the race and storms ahead in the closing meters for the win. If you were to count how many meters Finke leads an international race, it wouldn’t be very many. Even in the Fukuoka final, he only led at the 1000m, 1050m, and 1150m turns. Otherwise, he was closely shadowing Hafnaoui

So on paper, the Paris 1500 freestyle final presents a new challenge for Finke. The safe option for a repeat Olympic gold would be to mark the other finalists closely and burst ahead at the end of the race. But if Finke wants the world record too, then he may need to launch earlier than normal and lead solo for a long time.

THE IRISHMAN

That said, several swimmers in this field could join Finke in the fight with the world record line. One is Daniel Wiffen, who has made no secret of his wish to break the world record

Wiffen broke out in the spring of 2023, firing off a 14:34.91 (then the 5th fastest in history) at the Stockholm Open as the highlight of several big swims that moved him into the medal conversation. His claim that to break the world record, “[he] just needs to swim it again,” proved incorrect, but he’s gotten even closer since that swim.

At the 2024 World Championships,

Wiffen rebounded from frustrating 4th place in the 800/1500 freestyles to win double gold in the men’s distance races. Wiffen was out faster at the 1000m mark (9:43.41) than Finke (9:43.34) who led the 2023 at that point. He fell off the 14:31 pace in the final 500 meters. Still, he held on and moved back up to 5th fastest all-time with a 14:34.07, lowering his Irish record by .84 seconds Breaking News, ‎Latest News

To this point in his career, Wiffen has done his best swims when he’s unchallenged and can build a huge gap to the rest of the field. That certainly won’t be the state of affairs in Paris. Even if Wiffen chooses to take the race out quickly, there’s a strong chance he’ll have some company.

He’s the only man to break 14:40 so far this season and his exploits in the last year make him a strong contender for the Olympic podium—a very different position from where he was in Tokyo, where he finished 9th. Wiffen presents with a calm confidence, which he’ll need to rely on in a stacked final. Breaking News, ‎Latest News

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

At the 2022 World Championships, Paltrinieri set a challenge to the rest of the field by turning on the jets early in lane 1. Well ahead of the world record pace for the majority of the race, Paltrinieri didn’t falter. Though he couldn’t withstand the closing speed of the world record line, Paltrinieri held on to set a European record 14:32.80 and become the then second-fastest performer in history (he’s now 4th).

The performance helped Paltrinieri rebound from a disappointing Tokyo Games, where he finished off the podium after winning in 2016. He also showed that it was possible to beat Fi, Making Money As An Online Writer Isn’t As Difficult As You Think