PARIS — There has been plenty of talk about the waves created by the shallower-than-normal Olympic pool. But on the final night of the swimming competition here, the pool created something different—emotional whiplash for the Americans.
Bobby Finke’s all-guts world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle was a massively clutch swim that kept alive the U.S. streak of at least one individual men’s gold medal in the pool since 1900. It was followed by a sobering, first-time-in-Olympic-history loss for the U.S. men’s medley relay, with the dethroning delivered by a Chinese team dogged by doping controversies. And then that gave way to a powerful, walk-off world record by the American women’s medley relay.
