The U.S. men’s swimming team definitely found themselves up the creek without a paddle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. With just one individual gold medal, it was their worst performance in decades—dating all the way back to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where they also managed only one gold. Even though Team USA swimming topped the overall medal count, the men’s team was left struggling. It wasn’t until the very last race that they managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Bobby Finke came through, grabbing the gold and setting a world record, which saved the USA from a complete disaster in the individual event.

Caeleb Dressel, who was supposed to be the big star after his five golds in Tokyo, really fell short at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He missed out on winning a medal in his go-to races—the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle. While he managed to perform outstanding roles in the events that saw the team clinch the gold in both the 4×100-meter freestyle relay and the 4×100-meter medley relay events, he did not have a lucky charm in the event to bag individual medals in any of the events in the competition. Despite this reality, the USA swimming team managed to stay on top by clinching a total of 28 swimming medals, just edging out Australia with 8 gold medals.

The spotlight at the 2024 Paris Olympics was truly owned by the women’s team, which excelled with athletes like Katie Ledeck and Torri Huske leading them to victory. Although men’s teams had poor performances, Team USA clinched 8 gold medals in Paris. While Finke did remarkably well to win the 800-meter freestyle, it was in the 1,500-meter freestyle race that put America on the map. His triumph earned the United States its individual gold finally. But now, after three months, Finke continues to shine bright by winning Golden Goggles on November 24th.

And finally, Bobby Finke clinched the Best Male Athlete of the Year award at the Golden Goggles ceremony, and of course, he fully deserved it. Furthermore, this was the second time he received that honor. This award was expected based on the performance in Paris. That’s where he broke the world record and won two medals.

After that, he said, ” I really wanted to get on top of the podium again and hear the anthem all over again like I did for the first time in Tokyo.” And in Paris, Finke first secured a medal in the men’s 800-meter freestyle and then in the 1500-meter freestyle event. And with it, he also set a new world record by clocking in at 14:30.67 in 1500m. But also, another swimmer from America deserved and earned this title.

Besides Bobby Finke, Torri Huske also made America proud

Torri Huske clinched the Female Athlete of the Year honor! It’s all because of her performance in Paris; she secured three gold medals and two silvers in total. With two of them being accolades. The initial gold was earned in the 100-meter butterfly event by outpacing her counterpart and world record holder Gretchen Walsh with a timing of 55:59 seconds.

During Huske’s performance, she didn’t just excel in individual events. But also played a key role in three crucial relays leading to the setting of two new world records. She swam the freestyle leg in 51.88 in the mixed medley relay, where the U.S. narrowly edged out China by a tenth of a second. In the women’s 4×100 relay event that saw the U.S. clinch gold with a 3.5-second lead over Australia, Huske anchored the team with a split time of 52:42.

In the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay race finish event, the U.S. team secured second place, behind Australia, with Huske making a crucial 52:06 split on the third leg to edge out China for the spot before claiming a noteworthy award for her exceptional performance. By the close of the day, at the 2024 Paris Olympics event, the U.S. men’s swimming team encountered challenges; however, Bobby Finke and Torri Huske truly upheld the honor of the United States.