Bobby Finke ended a drought for the US men in the pool on Sunday night in style, winning gold and breaking the 1500m freestyle world record. The news got better for the Americans shortly afterwards when the women broke the 4x100m medley record.
Fiske’s was the first individual men’s swimming gold for the US at these Olympics. If they had been shut out, it would have been the first time since 1900 an American man had failed to win an individual gold in the pool, excluding the 1980 Moscow Games, which the US boycotted.