Emma Finlin had a tough Olympic debut, but became an Olympian on a beautiful sunny morning swimming in the Seine River.
The 19-year-old from Edmonton finished 23rd in the women’s 10-km open water marathon Thursday morning at the Paris 2024 Games.
Rio 2016 champion Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands returned to the top of the podium in a time of 2:03:34.2, followed by Australian Moesha Johnson (+5.5) and bronze medallist Ginevra Taddeucci of Italy (+8.6).
It was the first Olympic marathon swim to feature winning times above two hours, as all swimmers battled tremendous currents in the Seine. At some points they appeared to be almost at a standstill.
Finlin was Canada’s lone representative in the open water marathon after qualifying through the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
“I was really grateful to just be in there with all these incredible girls,” Finlin said. “That wasn’t the race I wanted to put in for my first Olympics, but I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing. I’m excited to see my family and give them a hug, they’re my biggest supporters.”
She walked out on the pontoon below the golden statues of Pont Alexandre III to applause from an enthusiastic crowd of some 4,000 fans. Hundreds more lined the banks of the Seine, peering through fences around the venue, or watching from the Pont des Invalides as the athletes swam under it mid-course. The Eiffel Tower looked on in the background.
Finlin sat in spot No. 12 of the 24 starting places, dipped her legs in the Seine, splashed water on herself and did her final stretches. She dove in, and started out right in the middle the pack as the current was with the swimmers for the first half of the lap.
By the end of the first of six laps, however, she struggled against the current going the other way. She fell behind the main pack, and eventually settled for battling Chinese swimmer Xin Xin for the final place in the standings.
“I underestimated the current for sure, so that was a bit difficult but I couldn’t control that,” she said. “On the way back you were fighting a pretty heavy current and the sun was there too so it was hard to see.”
“Obviously that was a tough race for Emma and some lessons learned,” said Open Water Head Coach Mark Perry. “It’s great that she’s an Olympian now. She’ll learn a lot from this experience and being in this environment. Hopefully she can build on that for the next four years and come back stronger and much more experienced.”
American 18-year-old Katie Grimes, who finished 15th, was the only swimmer younger than Finlin, Canada’s youngest ever competitor in this event. Perry pointed out Finlin can learn from the experience as she looks ahead to future open water swims, including at the Open Water Junior World Championships Sept. 5-8 in Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia.
“I think she’s a much, much better athlete than that. A tactical error on the first lap, she lost the pack and once you’ve lost the pack in open water swimming, you’ve pretty much got no chance of getting back to the pack, so it’s a lonely nine kilometres,” Perry said. “You’ve got to be pretty tough to do that mentally and physically so we’re proud of her for that. She’s obviously got the world juniors to look forward to in a few weeks. Hopefully she can learn from this and swim much better.”
The open water marathon concluded an outstanding Olympics for Canada, which won eight medals in the pool.
Full results: https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule/marathon-swimming
Pool wrap-up: https://www.swimming.ca/en/news/2024/08/04/canadian-swimmers-wrap-up-impressive-olympic-performance/