Nic Fink

Nicolas Fink (born July 3, 1993) is an American competitive swimmer.

He is a five-time world champion in breaststroke events.

He is a world record holder in the short course 4×100 meter medley relay and 4×50 meter mixed medley relay.

He is the Americas record holder in the short course 50 meter breaststroke, 100 meter breaststroke, and 200 meter breaststroke as well as the American record holder in the long course 50 meter breaststroke.

In the 50 meter breaststroke, he won the World Short Course titles in 2021 and 2022 and World Long Course title in 2022.

In the 100 meter breaststroke, he is the 2022 World Short Course gold medalist.

In the 200 meter breaststroke, he is the 2021 World Short Course gold medalist.

Fink grew up in Morristown, New Jersey and attended Pingry School.

He started dreaming about being an Olympian while watching swimming on television as a kid.

Collegiately, Fink competed for the Georgia Bulldogs of the University of Georgia, signing his official letter of intent in fall 2010.

He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology with an emphasis in Systems and Controls, and Digital Signal Processing.

He placed 11th in the 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 1:01.14, 17th in the 200 meter breaststroke with a 2:13.89, and 26th in the 200 meter individual medley with his time of 2:03.69.

Fink competed at his first US Olympic Trials in 2012 at the 2012 USA Swimming Olympic Trials held in Omaha, Nebraska in June and July.

He did not qualify for the 2012 US Olympic Team in any of the events he raced.

This marked the first time in three Olympic Games cycles that Fink made the US Olympic Team, he had previously tried and not made the team at both the 2012 and 2016 US Olympic Trials.

In the semifinals of the 100 meter breaststroke, Fink also swam a personal best time of 58.50 seconds which moved him up in rankings to the second fastest male American swimmer in the event only behind Michael Andrew who won the semifinals heat in an American record time of 58.14.

In the final of the 100 meter breaststroke Fink finished in third place and did not make the US Olympic team in the event.

Fink broke out onto the national scene after he placed 2nd in the 2013 US National Championships in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:00.24.

Fink also placed 3rd in the 200m breaststroke and 6th in the 50m breaststroke.

At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Fink placed 8th in the final of the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:00.10.

Fink made the US team for the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, with his performances at the 2014 National Championships in Irvine, California.

In the final of the 200 meter breaststroke, Fink swam a 2:08.94, winning the silver medal as one of only two competitors to swim under 2:10.00 in the final with the other being Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan who won the gold medal.

Fink's swims at both championships earned him a spot on the US National Team in swimming for the 2014—2015 year, making him one of twelve student athletes from the University of Georgia to be named to the year's team.

His race in the 200 meter breaststroke at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships also earned him a nomination for USA Swimming's Golden Goggle Award for "Male Race of the Year".

At the 2016 US Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Fink placed 7th in the 100 meter breaststroke final with a time of 1:00.39 and placed 7th in the 200 meter breaststroke with a time of 2:11.55 in the final.

This was the second time Fink competed at the US Olympic Trials as well as the second time he did not make the US Olympic Team.

For the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, Fink was named to the USA Swimming Team in the 200 meter breaststroke.

On the third day of competition, Fink won a silver medal in the 200 meter breaststroke with his time of 2:08.16 and finished less than six tenths of a second behind the gold medalist in the event and fellow American Will Licon.

On the fifth and final day of competition, Fink swam the breaststroke leg of the 4×100 meter medley relay in a time of 58.57 seconds, and along with his relay teammates of Daniel Carr (backstroke), Tom Shields (butterfly), and Nathan Adrian (freestyle) won the gold medal in a new Pan American Games record time of 3:30.25.

In 2019 he was a member of the inaugural International Swimming League representing the Cali Condors, who finished third place in the final match in Las Vegas, Nevada in December.

Fink won both the 50 and 200 breaststroke for the Condors at the final.

His time of 25.75 seconds in the 50 meter breaststroke set a new American record for the event.

The following year, in the 2020 season of the International Swimming League, Fink set new American records in the 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 56.16 seconds and in the 200 meter breaststroke with a 2:02.20.

In June 2021, Fink qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games by placing first at the US Olympic Team Trials in the 200 meter breaststroke with a personal best time of 2:07.55.

Following the US Olympic Trials, Fink returned to New Jersey for a week, then was off to the US Olympic swim team training camp, and after that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

In the preliminaries of the 200 meter breaststroke on day four of swimming competition, he finished in a time of 2:08.48 and advanced to the semifinals ranked fourth overall.

He swam a 2:08.00 in the semifinals, finishing second in his semifinal heat and ranking fourth overall heading into the final.

In the final, he swam faster than in the semifinals with a time of 2:07.93 and placed fifth.

Fink set a new American record in the short course 50 meter breaststroke with a time of 25.72 seconds at the final match of the 2021 International Swimming League in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Later the same day, he set a new Americas record and American record in the 4x100 meter medley relay, splitting a time of 55.21 seconds for the breaststroke leg of the relay and contributing to the new record time of 3:19.64 with club Cali Condors relay teammates Coleman Stewart, Caeleb Dressel, and Justin Ress.