Damn. I forgot to make a bet on Michael Andrew's last 50m of his 200m IM.

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I only swim.
I used to run. (31:09 10k)
I never did Triathlon.
Sue me.

Dressel of course won the 50 free, by almost a half second, with MA 4th.

Bobby Finke won the 1500 for the first American win in this event since Mike O'Brien in 1984. Finke also won the 800, and of course Ledecky won both the 800 and 1500, thus making the US look kinda sorta like a distance power house but not really.

The US men finally win another relay as they broke the WR in the 400 medley. The US women did well also, collecting a silver after being out-touched by 0.13 sec by the Aussies.

End of pool swimming events but the 10K OW races are coming up on 4-5 Aug.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I would say the US IS surprisingly a powerhouse in distance based on results. Besides Fink's ridiculous swims, the crazy finish at 8 and the no question win in the 1500, went 1 and 2 in women's. I think if that's not powerhouse stuff I'm not sure what would be. ANY country would be crowing over that, especially the Aussies.

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Kiwami Racing Team

The us have won 11 gold in the pool, the Aussies 9. Considering the population difference, I think the Aussies are welcome to crow. Distance results or not.

The Aussie men have been dominant in D swimming over the past 30 yrs or so. Kieren Perkins, Grant Hackett, Ian Thorpe, and Mac Horton have dominated the medals in 400/800/1500 swimming since around 1990. The US finally has one single outstanding D freestyler in Finke but Finke is just one guy vs at least 4 Aussies plus prob a couple of other Aussies I'm not remembering.

For whatever reason, US women's D swimming has been pretty dominant since Janet Evans in 1988-96. I have no idea why we've had so many great female D swimmers and so few male.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

The US women should have won that medley relay...they gave it away with 2 horrible relay starts.

Last I knew there was no country handicap based on population. Many countries have had strengths....look at Romania in women's gymnastics. The Olympics add to the nationalism in sport, but if you were to look at the top 100 in each event, I think the domination would go even further. Just reality.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Aussie's "domination" went back further than those guys with the previous "Australian Crawl" leading the pack with a side stroke kick interspersed. That said, every "domination" has been fluid. Many countries have "dominated" for periods of time in various events, yet shifts with time. There are countless examples in all the Olympic sports. Sweeping the 800 and 1500 and 1-2 in the Women's 1500 would be the envy of any country. Bragging rights exist until the next competition, but I certainly feel these performances, especially that crushing finish in the 800 by Finke will add some fuel to events that were previously not very popular in this country. We favored the sprints, so maybe the pendulum will swing...

And Finke is very young still.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Well, I hope you're right but I wouldn't bank on it. Americans like short fast events, anything over 4 min is way too long. We'll see if Finke can usher in a resurgence in men's D swimming.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

So true, in most sports. Track as well. I do hope Ledecky and Finke foster in a new interest as they had crazy races. Finke's bursts will be the dramatic highlight that those events need.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Interesting article.....

https://swimswam.com/...p1dbltmBlVQGZKtEbfMY

A lot of truth there..

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Kiwami Racing Team

Actually, I was just reading tis same article. Interesting that 38 out of 49 US Oly Team swimmers (about 77.5%) won at least one medal. Kind of bummer for those other 11 but just making the team is a huge accomplishment. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."