Thursday, August 4, 2022
Nic Fink Continues to Reach New Heights
Nic Fink found himself in an unexpected position last year.
The U.S. 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. Instead, he made his first Olympics, at which he was joined by a number of first-timers who were much younger.
“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. “It was a weird experience where I was taking on the role of a vet[eran] on a team when I had never gone to that meet before. It was really fun.”
Fink 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
“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. “I didn’t realize I’d be going best times and winning medals and stuff like that. I just thought I had a shot to make the World team, just do the best I can and represent the U.S. well is what I was hoping for.
“The success I’ve had this summer was definitely beyond what I expected. I was just keeping swimming in there for fun while worrying about school and other stuff in life.”
A mindset shift has helped him achieve his late-career success.
“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 had thought that if I didn’t make the team, then my career would be considered a failure, and that’s just not true. I think I had experienced a lot of success.
“I think around 2019 was when I finally was comfortable with where I was in the sport and what I had accomplished. I went into 2020/2021 thinking that making the Olympics was going to be icing on the cake. I tried to go into it with less stress, less expectations than I had in 2016.
“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.”
Fink credited his longtime girlfriend, fellow U.S. National Team member and Olympic gold medalist Melanie Margalis, for helping him change how he viewed swimming and his career.
The two have trained together for years—starting at the University of Georgia, from which they both graduated, and now at Georgia Tech, where Fink is pursuing his master’s degree and Margalis is coaching at—and compete at many of the same high-level meets.
“It’s cool because we get to practice on a daily basis and then we can come home and talk about certain things from practice or meets or whatever,” Fink said. “You don’t necessarily get an opportunity to share what you’re feeling with another world-class-level athlete.
“She’s definitely helped me be the swimmer I am today and shape how I look at me and how I look at practice. It’s been fun doing this process with her the past couple of years.”
Balancing academics and training has been challenging for Fink.
He said there have been times that it seemed like all he was doing was eating, sleeping, studying and training in an endless loop, but he’s enjoyed the classes he’s been taking, especially digital image processing, network controls and statistical machine learning.
He’s adopted an “it doesn’t matter” approach to his training — in a good way. If he misses a workout because he was studying, he tells himself it doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t swim as fast as he wanted on a set but still gave it everything he had, he tells himself it doesn’t matter. This is Fink’s way of not making swimming too big of a deal, something that hurt him in 2016.
“I didn’t want to get hung up on all the details of what I have been doing in the past six years of just focusing on swimming and trying to be the best in the pool every day and doing everything I could to make teams and go best times,” Fink said. “I’d rather just focus on the day-to-day process and having fun. I just want to enjoy the process. The second where it becomes a job more than anything is probably when I retire because it’s too much work to think of it that way.”
Fink, 29, doesn’t know when he’ll retire, but he seems to be aiming to qualify for another Olympics. He’d be 31 at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Last year, I may not have been super convinced that I was going to be going another [Olympic] cycle, but I think with the success that I’ve had this year, it’s making it an easier decision to keep going and see where this can take me,” Fink said. “There’s definitely things that I can fine-tune and improve on. I think there’s more to be done in the next couple of years.”
The U.S. 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. Instead, he made his first Olympics, at which he was joined by a number of first-timers who were much younger.
“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. “It was a weird experience where I was taking on the role of a vet[eran] on a team when I had never gone to that meet before. It was really fun.”
Fink 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
“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. “I didn’t realize I’d be going best times and winning medals and stuff like that. I just thought I had a shot to make the World team, just do the best I can and represent the U.S. well is what I was hoping for.
“The success I’ve had this summer was definitely beyond what I expected. I was just keeping swimming in there for fun while worrying about school and other stuff in life.”
A mindset shift has helped him achieve his late-career success.
“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 had thought that if I didn’t make the team, then my career would be considered a failure, and that’s just not true. I think I had experienced a lot of success.
“I think around 2019 was when I finally was comfortable with where I was in the sport and what I had accomplished. I went into 2020/2021 thinking that making the Olympics was going to be icing on the cake. I tried to go into it with less stress, less expectations than I had in 2016.
“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.”
Fink credited his longtime girlfriend, fellow U.S. National Team member and Olympic gold medalist Melanie Margalis, for helping him change how he viewed swimming and his career.
The two have trained together for years—starting at the University of Georgia, from which they both graduated, and now at Georgia Tech, where Fink is pursuing his master’s degree and Margalis is coaching at—and compete at many of the same high-level meets.
“It’s cool because we get to practice on a daily basis and then we can come home and talk about certain things from practice or meets or whatever,” Fink said. “You don’t necessarily get an opportunity to share what you’re feeling with another world-class-level athlete.
“She’s definitely helped me be the swimmer I am today and shape how I look at me and how I look at practice. It’s been fun doing this process with her the past couple of years.”
Balancing academics and training has been challenging for Fink.
He said there have been times that it seemed like all he was doing was eating, sleeping, studying and training in an endless loop, but he’s enjoyed the classes he’s been taking, especially digital image processing, network controls and statistical machine learning.
He’s adopted an “it doesn’t matter” approach to his training — in a good way. If he misses a workout because he was studying, he tells himself it doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t swim as fast as he wanted on a set but still gave it everything he had, he tells himself it doesn’t matter. This is Fink’s way of not making swimming too big of a deal, something that hurt him in 2016.
“I didn’t want to get hung up on all the details of what I have been doing in the past six years of just focusing on swimming and trying to be the best in the pool every day and doing everything I could to make teams and go best times,” Fink said. “I’d rather just focus on the day-to-day process and having fun. I just want to enjoy the process. The second where it becomes a job more than anything is probably when I retire because it’s too much work to think of it that way.”
Fink, 29, doesn’t know when he’ll retire, but he seems to be aiming to qualify for another Olympics. He’d be 31 at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Last year, I may not have been super convinced that I was going to be going another [Olympic] cycle, but I think with the success that I’ve had this year, it’s making it an easier decision to keep going and see where this can take me,” Fink said. “There’s definitely things that I can fine-tune and improve on. I think there’s more to be done in the next couple of years.”