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Nic Fink on Making the World Champs Team Even With Swimming on the Back Burner

2022 U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS

Reported by Anne Lepesant.

MEN’S 200 METER BREASTSTROKE – FINALS

  • World Record: 2:06.12 – Anton Chupkov (2019)
  • American Record: 2:07.17 – Josh Prenot (2016)
  • US Open Record: 2:07.17 – Josh Prenot (2016)
  • Jr World Record: 2:09.39 – Haiyang Qin (2017)
  • FINA “A” Cut: 2:10.32
  • SwimSwam Preview – M200 Breast

Podium:

  1. Nic Fink, MAAC / Charlie Swanson, Nova of Virginia – 2:08.84
  2. Jake Foster, Texas – 2:09.73
  3. Will Licon, Longhorn Aquatics – 2:11.03
  4. AJ Pouch, Virginia Tech – 2:11.14
  5. Josh Matheny, Indiana University – 2:11.14
  6. Tommy Cope, Indiana Swim Club – 2:12.84
  7. Maxwell Reich, Indiana University – 2:15.04

Jake Foster, swimming in lane 4 after posting the top time out of morning heats, went out first in the final, leading Charlie Swanson by a tenth at the 50 wall. Swanson took over the lead at the 100, outsplitting Foster by half a second on the second 50. Swanson was still up by almost half a body at the 150 turn and seemed to have the race sewn up.

But then along came Nic Fink.

Fink upped his tempo over the final 50 meters to shoot by Foster. He then began to challenge Swanson and the two traded stroke for stroke over the final 15 meters. They lunged for the wall and stopped the clock at exactly the same time, going 2:08.84 to tie for first place.

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HJones
2 years ago

Fink is doing something really interesting with his pull. His “outsweep” is much more like a butterfly “downsweep” than I’ve seen from any other breaststroker, and through the insweep he doesn’t change the pitch in his elbows very much, but he still brings his hands right to the surface–I wonder if that’s letting him come up higher in the water and get more out of his kick? Would love to see an underwater view of his race.

anonymous
2 years ago

What a great interview – and so refreshing after hearing some of the sound bites from the NFL draft this weekend. With a few exceptions, it’s night and day different…

Apiarist
2 years ago

GT is confirmed a breast school. World class breastrokers like Pumputis and now Nic, combined with other names like Kertes, Alderson, and Odorici who are all either 52 or 53 low.

Bud
Reply to  Apiarist
2 years ago

In what world is Caio Pumputis world class in breaststroke?
He only swam 200IM at the Olympics and didn’t even make the semifinal…

Last edited 2 years ago by Bud
Way beyond you think
Reply to  Bud
2 years ago

Through your logic, you would only be consider world class in that event if you swam that event at the games?
I think it is fair to say that someone who is currently ranked in the top 30 in the world in all three breaststroke events and final in the 200 breast in the last SCM Words is a world class breaststroker.

Joel Lin
2 years ago

Georgia Tech is an absolute world class powerhouse in the engineering & sciences disciplines. There’s no easy path to an advanced degree from GT. Fink merits high praises for balancing this so well.

Believer
Reply to  Joel Lin
2 years ago

High praise, no doubt. I did electrical engineering during undergrad while swimming D1, and found swimming as a great outlet to balance the challenge of the classroom. Would encourage more swimmers to choose STEM paths!

CAA Swammer
Reply to  Believer
2 years ago

SwimSwam recently posted an article about a new NCAA dashboard. The categories are somewhat broad, but it clearly shows that student-athlete men in Division I are heavily underrepresented in STEM fields relative to the corresponding student populations. The women student-athlete majors are very similar to the greater student populations.

https://staging.swimswam.com/ncaa-releases-diploma-dashboard-of-student-athlete-majors/

About Coleman Hodges

Coleman Hodges

Coleman started his journey in the water at age 1, and although he actually has no memory of that, something must have stuck. A Missouri native, he joined the Columbia Swim Club at age 9, where he is still remembered for his stylish dragon swim trunks. After giving up on …

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