New Jersey native Nick Fink made history on Sunday by winning the silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke, tying with two-time gold medalist Adam Peaty, to become the oldest first-time medalist for U.S. swimming in modern Olympic history.
Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy won gold in a photo-finish race, after Fink and Peaty of Great Britain both made history by touching the wall in 59.05 seconds.
“Adam is a legend in the sport and it’s fantastic to see his comeback and return and to stand on the podium with him, let alone win the silver medal, is an amazing experience,” Fink said. According to NJ.com“It’s really cool to see Nicolo there as well and we’ve been racing together for a long time so to share the podium with all of them.”
The first American swimmer of Fink’s age to win an Olympic medal was 120 years ago, when 36-year-old Edgar Adams won a silver medal in the diving for distance event in 1904. SwimSwam reported.
While Olympians train for years to compete on the sport’s biggest stage (as Fink did), the Morristown native also embodies the folksy side of the Olympics.
Fink has been a swimmer since high school, but in recent years has been competing remotely while working a regular 9-to-5 job at Quanta Utilities Engineering Services.
2024 Paris Olympics
The swimmer will pursue a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech, graduating after competing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Fink and his wife, Melanie Margaris Fink, who won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, currently live in Dallas and are expecting their first child.
Fink told NBC News: He said recently that he thought taking a normal job would mean the end of his swimming career.
Rather, he feels that “balance actually helps on both sides.”
But he’s not ignorant about his age and what it typically means for an athlete.
“Obviously, age is just a number in some ways,” Fink told The Associated Press, “but in other ways it means a lot more now, especially because I had the chance to end my career earlier and I continued for the love of the sport. To have had this much success at this late stage is just ecstatic and a lot of fun.”
Fink will have another chance at a medal later this week when he competes in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay.
