National Team member and Olympic gold medalist Melanie Margalis, for helping him change how he viewed swimming and his career. “I think my failure in 2016 helped me become better and swim more relaxed and more like myself at many of the meets since then, including Trials and all the meets this year.”įink credited his longtime girlfriend, fellow U.S. I tried to go into it with less stress, less expectations than I had in 2016. I went into 2020/2021 thinking that making the Olympics was going to be icing on the cake. “I think around 2019 was when I finally was comfortable with where I was in the sport and what I had accomplished. I think I had experienced a lot of success. “I had thought that if I didn’t make the team, then my career would be considered a failure, and that’s just not true. “In ’16, I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the Olympic team,” said Fink, who finished seventh in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke at Trials that year. I was just keeping swimming in there for fun while worrying about school and other stuff in life.”Ī mindset shift has helped him achieve his late-career success. “The success I’ve had this summer was definitely beyond what I expected. I just thought I had a shot to make the World team, just do the best I can and represent the U.S. “I didn’t realize I’d be going best times and winning medals and stuff like that. “Even while shifting the focus a little bit away from swimming and toward school and toward other things in life, I thought I could still be competitive on the world scale,” he said. This success has been something of a surprise to Fink, who started a master’s degree in computer and electrical engineering at Georgia Tech last fall after several years away from the classroom. His 57.86 breaststroke split on Team USA’s mixed 4x100 medley relay was the fastest ever by an American and six-tenths of a second faster than Michael Andrew’s split on the U.S.’s world record–setting men’s 4x100 medley relay at the Olympics. He set American records in the 50 and 100 breaststroke (short course meters) last December and then set another American record, in the 50 breaststroke (long course meters), at the FINA World Championships this summer. That could’ve been the storybook ending to a lengthy and successful career, but Fink decided to keep swimming, which has led to some remarkable performances over the past year.

It was really fun.”įink finished fifth in the 200 breaststroke, his 2:07.93 just eight-tenths of a second from earning a bronze medal, and was the oldest swimmer in the championship final. “It was a weird experience where I was taking on the role of a vet on a team when I had never gone to that meet before. “I was the second oldest on the team, so that was fun, and then I was also realizing I was a rookie with Katie Grimes, who was 15,” Fink said. Instead, he made his first Olympics, at which he was joined by a number of first-timers who were much younger.

National Team member qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics a few days before turning 28, an age when many elite swimmers are slowing down or retiring. Nic Fink found himself in an unexpected position last year.

Nick fink age