U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS - SWIMMING

June 17, 2021

Bobby Finke

Nic Fink

CHI Health Center

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Great, thank you everyone. Our first Olympians of the evening. On the left of the dais, we have Nic Fink, who won the Men's 200 Meter Breaststroke this evening, and Bobby Finke, who won the 800 Meter Freestyle this evening. Welcome, gentleman. We will open it up for questions.

Q. Nic, you were talking about breaststroke being an old man's event. Can you elaborate please?

NIC FINK: Yeah, I know 2012 it was Hanson, Shanteau, Burckle. It's like -- and then the next year I guess was a younger year, like my age, but we kept swimming fast, and it's more people my age this year.

Yeah, I think young kids like to come and take our stuff, but old people can fight 'em off longer I think in the breaststroke, like Bobby's a youngster in the 800 and, you know, for breaststroke, I think it's a little more -- we've been around the block. We've experienced a lot, and I think that really pays off for our event.

Q. Bobby, we've made a big deal about the 1500 for women going into the Olympics, but you have the 800 for men going in and I was wondering, has it been -- do you see that as your natural best event, or have you had to adjust somehow your training and your mindset?

BOBBY FINKE: I've kind of always done the 800 throughout the years. My training didn't really change. The 1500 I consider my best event, so I'm looking forward to that on Saturday and potentially Sunday, but nothing changed through training or anything.

Q. Nic, sometime before this meet you talked about how you can envision every possible outcome for yourself, making the team, not making the team. I'm wondering how you saw that play out. When you actually got to the meet and over the course of the week, especially with getting third in the 100 and tonight obviously winning and making the team.

NIC FINK: Yeah, one of the biggest reasons that I kind of spun my wheels in 2016 and had a pretty poor meet was because I envisioned myself winning, and there was no other -- not winning but making the team, there was no other options, and if there were, then I wouldn't even consider it. I wouldn't put any stock into it.

You know, the reality is that this is a really fast meet, and there's a lot of fast people here. If you put the entirety of your career on one meet, then, you know, it kind of nullifies everything else that you do.

So I think it was a lot more fun this time around, a lot less stressful knowing that -- knowing that I was going to be happy either way. If my hard work made it so that I could make the team, great, if not, then it was an awesome experience to be here, like it was in '16, and seeing my friends make the team, seeing my teammates make the team, seeing cousin Bobby make the team would have been worth it, but making the team myself is also a lot of fun.

Q. In the past couple of years there have been a lot of other things that are kind of new to swimming, ISL, a pandemic, and has that helped with kind of giving you perspective on this not being just the one focus meet?

NIC FINK: Yeah, I think especially coming out of college, my first year as a pro, it's a little bit different when that's what is helping pay the bills. It's what you do for a living at that point.

So it added, I don't want to say more stress, but there was definitely more significance to all of that.

I think making the team was something I really wanted, but I've learned to kind of contextualize it a little bit. There is plenty of successful swimmers that never make it the Olympic Team, and there are plenty of successful swimmers that ended up in a time here just short, and they go on to do other things.

I didn't really understand that in 2016, and now I was more at peace with my career and stuff like that, now. And being more relaxed helped me so much to kind of have fun and enjoy it.

Q. Nic, it's hard for a lot of us to imagine the margin that you missed second place by in the 100 Breaststroke. When you are talking about hundredths of a second missing out on the team, what goes through your mind? Do you wish you had missed it by 3 seconds or 5 tenths or not made the final at that point? Can you take us through what goes through your head?

NIC FINK: Yeah, quite frankly I would rather slip on the blocks than get out touched like that, and I won't necessarily show you but I didn't cut my fingernails between then and now. Yeah, this is a fast meet. It's going to come down to tenths and hundredths, and the thing is it wouldn't be any different out in Tokyo. That's going to be just as fast, if not faster, and tenths and hundredths mean everything out there. So those guys who made it, they earned it. Yeah, it was a tough pill to swallow, but I learned from it, and I didn't want to make the same mistakes I made in that race in the 200.

I think USA Swimming staff will be a little bit relaxed knowing they have a third 100 Breaststroker if the need arises who can do a relay or something if they need me to. Those guys swam a great final, and they deserve it.

Q. Nic, after the race you got out of the water and you seemed like you really took in the moment of winning the race, going a best time, making your first Olympic Team. What were you doing in that moment and how much does it mean to you? Were you kind of like breathing a sigh of relief a little bit?

NIC FINK: That's exactly what it was. I don't think it's crazy to envision what it's like to win races and celebrations and stuff before races, and I think that kind of helps you, you know, get yourself hyped up for the race. So for the 100, I imagined myself being way more excited and splashing water and all that stuff, but after the third place and the two days of reflection, I've realized that I was definitely more relieved than excited, if that makes sense. Not to say that I'm not excited, but it was definitely a sigh of relief.

Just trying to process everything. I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, but I just kind of wanted to let it sink in. It was mostly me holding back all my emotions than just being a mess out there. There was enough water in the pool. I didn't need to add more with water works there. Yeah, no, it was definitely a -- I don't know, a good moment to take in.

Q. For Bobby, Florida Gators, two undergrads and Caeleb on the team. How much does that mean to you to represent Florida the way you did and to be on your first Olympic Team?

BOBBY FINKE: It's a huge honor to represent them. Right now I think it's just mile left for freestyles, so I think it would be cool if we could all get the freestyles. It's something we look forward to, we talked about even on the NCAA level.

I'm excited for what's to come for all of us, and even my teammates who are going best times here and proving to everyone that they can do things special.

Q. Bobby, were you at Trials in '16?

BOBBY FINKE: Yeah.

Q. Can you compare the two meets, where you were emotionally and how you've moved through the meets?

BOBBY FINKE: I think in 2016 I was more stressed than I was here, but that's because I made the final in the 1500 and I didn't want to get last. I felt like I had been slowing down in the meet. But that didn't happen, I got 7th. (Chuckles.) I'm more relaxed here, definitely more stressed back then.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you everyone.