The Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10 kilometres marathon swim at Tokyo 2020 went to German swimmer F. Wellbrock.
F. Wellbrock Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
The 23-year-old F. Wellbrock German swimmer crossed the finish line in 1 minute, 48 seconds, and 33.7 seconds ahead of runner-up Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary, who clocked in at 1 minute, 48 seconds, and 59.0 seconds.
In a time of 1:49:01.1, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy won bronze. He breaks the Italian men’s record for Olympic medals in the marathon swimming event.
Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands, the defending Olympic champion from the 2016 Games in Rio, placed seventh.
After winning the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, Republic of Korea, F. Wellbrock added an Olympic gold medal to the world championship titles he already held from the 2016 Olympic Games.
F. Wellbrock Only Swimmer in History to Win a Gold Medal in Both the Pool and the Open Water
He is the only swimmer in history to win a gold medal in both the pool and the open water at the same World Championships. Gold medals in the 10km open water swim and the 1500m pool event were his in Gwangju.
F. Wellbrock, who had been in the lead for nearly the whole race, remarked, “The first 7km was incredibly simple.” The water wasn’t very comfortable, so I pushed myself to run faster than I should have, and the finish was a tremendous downer.
The weather today was the main adversary. I won the race by a wide margin, defeating both it and all of the other competitors.
F. Wellbrock started the race in first place at Odaiba Marine Park and never finished lower than second.
At the halfway point, he had a 4.2-second advantage over Rasovszky, who was working hard to bring the German back.
F. Wellbrock’s lead grew to 16.3 seconds with 500 metres to go as he sprinted to the finish line.
As the warmth soared in Tokyo, he persevered to extend his advantage to more than 25 seconds at the finish.
Last Words
F. Wellbrock repeated his success at the 2019 World Championships by winning the open water competition.
In addition to his gold in the 10 km marathon, F. Wellbrock also took home bronze in the 1500 m freestyle.
