Meet the electrical engineer who just won a silver medal at the Olympics

PARIS — Being an elite swimmer is a full-time job for most Olympians. But for Nic Fink, who won a silver medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke on Sunday night, he balances his training commitments and competitive schedule in the pool with a 9-to-5 job as an assistant project manager for an engineering firm.

Yes, he has even has a LinkedIn page and everything.

For much of his swimming career, Fink, 31, dedicated his time exclusively to the sport, but eventually he wanted to make a change. He wasn’t totally ready to give up his dreams as an athlete, but he was also ready to start his next chapter.

After making his Olympic debut in Tokyo, he began working on his master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering at Georgia Tech. Since graduating in December of 2022, he has started working at Quanta Utility Engineering Services, which allows him to work remotely from his home in Dallas and have a flexible schedule that accommodates his other career.

On Sunday, Fink — the oldest member of the U.S. swim team in Paris — won the first Olympic medal of his career and became the oldest first-time medalist in U.S. swimming history since 1904, according to SwimSwam. The race had a dramatic finish when Fink was out-touched by just .02 of a second by Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy and tied with Adam Peaty of Great Britain for the silver.

WHAT. A. FINISH.

Nicolo Martinenghi narrowly beats out Nic Fink and Adam Peaty to win a thrilling 100m breaststroke final! 🇮🇹 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/zKDfOOFy7F

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 28, 2024

Fink believes having a job, and balancing other interests with swimming, is a large part of the reason he was able to stand on the podium at this point in his career in a sport that often favors youth over experience.

“I did the whole professional swimming thing where I eat, sleep, swim, rinse and repeat,” Fink said on Sunday. “And I just hit the point in my life where I threw the kitchen sink at swimming and saw what happened and I was happy with it, and it was a good way to kind of wrap up that part of my life.

“I was ready to move on to other stages while still trying to keep a high level in swimming. I think having the job really helps me compartmentalize everything. And if you have a bad day in the pool, it really takes your mind off things and kind of keeps you focused on other things in life. So that’s why I like telling people to stay well-rounded and stay balanced because I think it only really helps in the pool.”

It seems like he’s onto something too. Since Tokyo, where he finished in fifth place in the 200m breaststroke, Fink has had the best results of his career. Having previously never won a world championship title, he has since won six, and earned seven other world championship medals.

He credits his unorthodox journey with giving him perspective and making him appreciate reaching the sport’s pinnacle at an age when few of his peers are still competing.

“It means more at this time, especially because there’s definitely [been] windows to close my career earlier and I kind of kept going for the love of the sport,” Fink explained. “To have this much success this late has been icing on the cake and a lot of fun.”

And, if he wasn’t already busy enough, Fink and his wife Melanie Margalis Fink, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist in swimming, are expecting their first child in September. Because of her nearing due date, she wasn’t able to make the trip to France but watched from home and was with him “in spirit.” While retiring from swimming might seem like the natural next step following his time in Paris — especially with a growing family and a burgeoning engineering career — Fink said he wasn’t sure he was ready to walk away just yet.

And he certainly wasn’t worried about balancing his time.

“I could have probably closed the door a couple times on my career and it’s only gotten better and better,” Fink said. “So I don’t want to say anything definitive and [the 2028 Olympics in] L.A. is four years away, and home Olympics would be pretty cool, so we’ll see. But yeah, there’s other things to focus on after this meet and after the summer, so that’s a hurdle that I’ll jump when I get there. For now I’m just focusing on the relays and then life after that.”