NANTERRE, France — Bobby Finke was the last hope for the U.S. men's swim team to earn an individual Olympic gold medal.
On swimming's final night, he delivered in a big way.
Finke earned the Olympic gold in the men's 1500-meter freestyle and set a new world record on Sunday.
He was under world-record pace the entire race and really turned it on coming to the finish. He touched in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds to break the record of 14.31.02 set by China's Sun Yang at the 2012 London Games.
He's the first man on Team USA's swim team to earn an individual gold medal these Games in what has been a disappointing run for the Americans.
Finke’s gold was the seventh for the U.S., pulling them into a tie with Australia for the top spot in that column with only the 4x100 medley relays remaining.
But the giddiness from Finke's win was quickly erased when the Americans lost the men's 4x100 medley relay at the Summer Games for the first time.
China stunned the U.S., which had won gold in the event at every Olympics other than the boycotted Moscow Games in 1980.
Team USA's Gretchen Walsh also came up short of a bronze medal on the final night of the Olympic swimming program.
Walsh failed to clinched her third medal of the Paris Games in the women's 50-meter freestyle. She previously took home a silver in the 100-meter butterfly and as part of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjöström swept the competition to win the gold medal.