Particularly impressive about this race is that Finnerty swam in front of the DC Trident’s hometown crowd. Olympian Kaitlin Sandeno serves as General Manager of the DC Trident.
Finnerty finished in second place in the men’s 50 meter breaststroke, where he set a new American record with a time of 25.99 seconds. In that race, Brazilian swimmer Felipe Lima of the Los Angeles Current finished in first place with a time o 25.92 seconds.
In addition, Finnerty reigned supreme in the men’s 200 breaststroke race, clocking 2:02.76, where he bested such elite swimmers as Marco Koch, Josh Prenot, Will Licon, Cody Miller, and Andrew Wilson. “That was a very painful race,” he said. “Being able to get the win, in the end, was really awesome.”
Finnerty was one of two athletes that broke American records today, along with Melanie Margolis of the Cali Condors, who broke the American record in the women’s 400 meter individual medley (IM) race.
He was one of two American records on the day, along with Melanie Margolis of the Cali Condors who broke the 400m IM record.
Finnerty trains at Indiana University under Head Coach Ray Looze, where he graduated this past spring.
When asked what motivates him each day, Finnerty said, “I have a good group of training partners with Cody Miller and Lilly King.” “Training with them motivates me quite a bit,” he said.
Finnerty defined the word success as “beating your own expectations.”
To learn more about American swimmer Ian Finnerty, follow him on Instagram.
