Morristown native Nic Fink, a Pingry graduate, wins a silver medal in the breaststroke in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Morristown native Nic Fink, a Pingry graduate, wins a silver medal in the breaststroke in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Is Morris County the next Olympic Titletown for USA Swimming?
After Jack Alexy from Mendham helped the United States win gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay, Nic Fink competed in an exciting 100-meter breaststroke final in Paris on Sunday, tying for second place.
At 59.05 seconds, Fink and Great Britain’s Adam Peaty tied for second place and ended only two hundredths of a second behind Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi, who took home the gold. On the podium, to Martinenghi’s right, Fink and Peaty accepted their silver medals from Princess Anne of Great Britain.
The bleached-blonde Martinenghi invited Fink and Peaty onto the top step after the Italian national song and posed for a photo, which Fink displayed to the TV cameras.
Fink said, “It was pretty surreal,” on Monday morning’s TODAY Show. “To say it’s a fingernail touch is almost cliched a lot of the time. However, it was yesterday night. I was just missing first place by a hair, but I was also just missing the podium by a hair. It nearly seems as though it was intended to be secondary. It was great to share the podium with Adam and Nico.”
Since Edgar Adams won a silver medal in 1904, Fink, 31, is the oldest person to win an Olympic medal for the USA Swimming team.
A news release quoted Fink, a co-captain for USA Swimming, as saying, “It’s just a number in some sense but in another sense, it means more.” “My career had windows of opportunity to end earlier, but I persisted because I loved the sport.” Experiencing such achievement at this late stage of life has been very delightful and frosting on the cake. Above all, it’s been enjoyable.”
Fink, the current world champion in the 100 breast, was fourth following the semifinals, while Peaty was ranked first heading into the Paris La Défense Arena final…
A lengthy journey from Pingry to the Olympics in Paris
Among the group of elite American swimmers that sent three athletes to the Summer Games, Fink is the seasoned member of USA Swimming’s “Jersey Boys” and has already won two medals. Warren’s Matt Fallon is participating in the Paris breaststroke as well.
Fink, who attended The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, has received several honors. At the University of Georgia, he is a four-time Southeastern Conference 100 breaststroke winner and a 19-time All-American. He is a five-time global breaststroke champion and has been a member of Team USA since 2013.
“To at least walk away with some hardware and help add more medals on the table for Team USA is an honor,” Fink stated. “It’s really great to have a team here who will help you and help make a difference.”
He did not qualify for the 2012 or 2016 Games, but at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which were held one year later than scheduled due to the COVID epidemic, he placed fifth in the 200-meter breaststroke.
As a senior in 2011, Fink won the 100-yard breaststroke at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, setting a new state high school record. He was also named the Somerset County Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice while attending Pingerry. He was the anchor of the record-breaking 200 and 400 freestyle relays and raced breaststroke on the squad that established a meet record in the medley relay.
After participating in Tokyo, he graduated from Georgia Tech with a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. He currently works remotely as an assistant project manager for Quanta Utility Engineering Services, located in Atlanta. Fink arrived at training camp with his work laptop, which he used to monitor his progress and communicate with teammates in between drills.
Fink is expecting their first child, a boy, in mid-September with his wife, Dallas-based swimmer Melanie Margalis Fink, who won an Olympic gold medal in 2016. She is the assistant women’s coach at Southern Methodist University, where he receives his training.
A REALLY Tight Finish in the 100-Meter Breaststroke
In the 100-meter breaststroke, Fink and the legendary British swimmer Adam Peaty matched for the silver medal, finishing just 0.002 seconds behind the Italian champion, Nicolo Martinenghi.
It would be heartbreaking for some to be so close to the top step on the podium. For Fink, not so. Not after what he’s experienced.
He did not make the Olympic squad on his first two trips to the U.S. trials. After a pandemic-related delay, he made his breakthrough in the 200 breaststroke in 2021, although he only placed sixth in the event.
He’s finally gotten his long-desired piece of gear.
Fink said, “Yeah, age is just a number in some sense.” However, it also has a deeper meaning now since I kind of continued because I was passionate about the sport even though there were clear opportunities to end my career sooner. It has been great joy and the frosting on the cake to achieve this much success so late.
At the World Aquatics Championship, Fink defeated Peaty and Martinenghi. He works remotely for Quanta Utility Engineering Services from his Dallas home when he’s not in the pool.
Fink and those around him, from his coaches at Southern Methodist University to his engineering coworkers, manage to make it work despite the fact that multitasking requires some serious talents.
Fink remarked, “It’s kind of a group effort in the pool.” “They are aware that I will complete my tasks at work, even though my hours may differ somewhat from those of other individuals. I can honestly say that I have responded to messages that ask, “Hey, can I get this back to you in like an hour or so?” And they say something like, “You do you, no rush.” They inform me of the deadlines for tasks, and I adjust accordingly.
Fink is expecting their first child with Melanie Margalis-Fink, his wife, who works as an assistant swim coach at SMU.
Fink pretended to be rocking a baby as he celebrated becoming a father from the Olympic Trials swimming pool.
Olympic Games in Paris: Nic Fink of New Jersey takes silver after an incredible tie with a legendary swimmer
That’s exactly what he had. The 31-year-old Fink, a Pingry alum, won a silver medal after touching the end of the pool in 59.05 seconds, precisely on cue with Peaty. In the thrilling photo finish, Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy emerged victorious by the narrowest of margins—just two hundredths of a second.
“It’s a little odd to split a medal, but I did split a silver in the 100 breast before,” Fink remarked in reference to the three-way tie in the Fukuoka, Japan, world championships in 2023. “I find it amusing that it has occurred once more.
Later this week, Fink will try again for a medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay. Since the event’s inception at the 1960 Games, the men from the United States have won it fifteen times in total. The 1980 boycott was the only time they were not present on the medal stand.
Fink may run in the event alongside another resident of New Jersey. Among the competitors in the medley relay pool is Jack Alexy of Mendham, who has previously won a gold medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay. China and Great Britain are the main rivals to American supremacy; some believe the former will break the U.S. record.
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