Inside USA men's swimming medals: How Bobby Finke prevented U.S. from losing 120-year Olympics gold streak

The 2024 Olympics have been one to forget for the United States men's swimming team.

While the women's side has seen individual gold medals won by Katie Ledecky and Kate Douglass, the same cannot be said of the males. The group led by Caeleb Dressel, Bobby Finke didn't reach the top of the podium in any individual event until the final one on Sunday.

In total, there are 14 individual races in Olympic swimming for the men. The U.S. started 0-for-13 before Bobby Finke won the 1500m in record-setting fashion on Sunday in Paris.

That's not to say that there hasn't been other successes for the group. Finke initially won silver in the men's 800-meter freestyle event and Nic Fink claimed silver in the 100-meter breaststroke. Carson Foster earned bronze in the 400-meter individual medley, as did Luke Hobson in the 200-meter freestyle and Ryan Murphy in the 100-meter backstroke.

The 4x100-meter freestyle relay squad earned gold earlier in the Olympics, and the 4x100-medley relay team has a shot at gold on Sunday.

However, the USA is used to winning gold in the individual events — so much that a 120-year gold medal streak was nearly snapped.

Here are more details on the streak and the last time the USA failed to collect an Olympic men's individual swimming gold medal.

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Last time USA failed to win Olympic men's individual swimming gold

The last time the United States did not go home with an Olympic men's individual gold medal in swimming was 124 years ago in 1900. Ironically, those Games also took place in Paris, the first of three Olympics in the French city.

That year, the United States sent just one swimmer — Bill Tuttle — who failed to medal in any of the six individual events.

Since then, the United States has won at least one gold in a men's individual swimming event in every Olympics. The lone exception is the 1980 Moscow Olympics which the country boycotted.

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Olympics men's swimming individual results 2024

As mentioned above, the United States wasn't going home medal-less in men's individual events regardless of how Finke performed. The American men did earn plenty of medals in swimming before Finke's 1500m win, but they struggled to get to the top of the podium.

A large part of the team's lack of first-place finishes had been the disappointing showing out of Dressel. The eight-time Olympic gold medalist was unable to defend either of his gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly. Dressel finished sixth in the 50-meter event before failing to even qualify for the finals of the 100-meter race.

Dressel is not the only one who came up short in defending an Olympic title. Finke won both the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle in Tokyo but lost to Ireland's Daniel Wiffen in the 800-meter event. The Irishman was the favorite to win the 1500-meter race, but Finke went and beat him convincingly to avoid snapping the streak.

In the 400-meter individual medley, Tokyo gold medalist Chase Kalisz failed to reach the finals, while his countryman Carson Foster settled for bronze as France's Leon Marchand won the 400-meter event.

Here is a look at how the USA has done in each of the individual men's swimming events: