By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
Last week, many of the best American swimmers converged on Fort Lauderdale, including men’s 1500 freestyle world record holder Bobby Finke. While some of the athletes, like Gretchen Walsh, had exceptional performances, Finke appeared to be a little off his best, but was he actually?
Finke historically adds time during the season when he is not fully shaved and tapered. Last week, he won the 800 freestyle in 7:53.17, about 15 seconds off his lifetime best 7:38.67 and finished 2nd in the 1500 at 15:13.62, 43 seconds off his world record 14:30.67.
Many swimming fans were concerned about Finke’s swims, particularly his 1500 freestyle, and what they might mean for his Pan Pacs swims, but he wasn’t that far off his typical in-season times.
It is important to remember when looking at the data, that Finke is already on the Pan Pacs team this summer. Typically at the beginning of May, he is just a month out from the International Team Trials, and is likely in a different phase of training, so we are comparing his slowest in-season swims rather than all of his times from May.
Finke is also a distance swimmer, which makes his adds appear far more dramatic. A 43 second add in a 1500 is an average of about 2.9 seconds per 100.
Starting with the 1500 freestyle, Finke finished 2nd overall in 15:13.62. This was Finke’s slowest 1500 of the season by about four seconds (a little more than two tenths per 100) from the 15:09.21 he swam at the U.S. Open Championships in December.
1500 Freestyle Performances
Meet 2025 U.S. Open 2026 Pro Swim Series — Austin 2026 Pro Swim Series — Westmont 2026 Fort Lauderdale Open Time 15:09.21 15:01.70 15:08.27 15:13.62His swim was also his slowest swim since May of 2023, when he swam 15:26.89 at the Georgia Speedo Atlanta Classic. Just two months later, he swam 14:31.59 at the World Championships in Fukuoka.
If we look at Finke’s slowest in-season time compared to his end of season swim, he is in-line with the typical performances we see. The data actually shows that Finke’s mid-season performances have little bearing on how he swims at the end of the season. Last year, all of his 1500 swims were under 15 minutes, with his slowest performance coming in at 14:58.68. In Singapore, he swam 14:36.60, which was six seconds off his world record time of 14:30.67.
Year 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Slowest In-Season Performance 15:09.91 15:04.77 15:26.89 15:05.96 14:58.68 End-of-Season Time 14:39.65 14:36.70 14:31.59 14:30.67 14:36.60The 800 data is even less clear. So far this season, Finke’s slowest 800 free time is 7:58.35 from the Pro Swim Series in Westmont. Last week, he swam 7:53.17, which was his 2nd fastest performance this season.
800 Freestyle Performances
Meet 2025 U.S. Open 2026 Pro Swim Series — Austin 2026 Pro Swim Series — Westmont 2026 Fort Lauderdale Open Time 7:57.68 7:51.50 7:58.35 7:53.17When looking at the slowest in-season vs end-of-season results, Finke’s slowest in-season time (before this year) stands at 7:56.97 from 2023, which comes from the same season as his personal best 800 free time of 7:38.67 from the 2023 World Championships.
Year 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Slowest In-Season Performance 7:55.05 7:54.07 7:56.97 7:55.85 7:57.54 End-of-Season Time 7:41.87 7:39.36 7:38.67 7:38.75 7:44.02The moral of the story is that Bobby Finke is not an in-season swimmer, and there is no clear way to look at his performances from in-season meets and make a prediction about how he will perform at the end of the season.
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