Photo courtesy of @connswimdive on Instagram
Swimming star Justin Finkel ‘25 has set countless records for Connecticut College this season. He has exceeded even the loftiest of expectations and brought pride to the Camel community by earning NESCAC Swimmer of the Year and taking home a second-place title from Division III Nationals (NCAAs).
Finkel is from Cheshire, Connecticut, and has been competitively swimming since he was eight years old. He competed in hundreds of swim meets and won many titles for his high school before he was recruited to swim at Conn.
Finkel specializes in the 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter freestyle, and 500-meter freestyle, and placed first in each of these races at NESCAC finals in February. For these incredible finishes, he was awarded NESCAC Swimmer of the Year. Not only did he take home first place in each of these events, but he also set school records in all of them. After conquering the NESCAC, he then moved on to swim in NCAA Div. 3 Championship with his team where he won second place in the 500-meter freestyle and 200-meter butterfly. During this run, he again broke the school records for all of the events he specializes in. His time for a 500 freestyle, a 20-lap swim, is 4 minutes and 21 seconds, just 15 seconds more than the world record. For both his excellence in the pool and the classroom, he was awarded a Scholar All-American title, meaning that he was a top-eight swimmer in NCAA Division III and had a GPA of at least 3.5. Finkel is also 69th in the country for the 200-meter butterfly across all divisions.
“There’s so much going through your mind when you swim that you don’t even have room to think about how you feel,” Finkel said. “After I win, there’s just so much dopamine and sometimes I just get overcome with joy. Nationals are like a professional sporting event. We put on fast suits, we shave down, just like when we get ready for NESCACs. It’s so much fun. The environment is really fast and the energy is crazy. I’ll never forget how I felt at NESCACs. I finished my 200 butterfly that I won and I could see my whole team right there. They were all jumping and going crazy. That gave me more joy than getting the best time. Seeing how excited I made my teammates and seeing how happy they were made me happier than the win itself. I love uplifting my team.”
Finkel is a Biology major with a minor in Hispanic Studies. Around campus, you’ll often find him at Zachs Hillel House, where he works as the Shabbat Coordinator on the Conn Coll Hillel Board. He is also a SAC representative for the swim team and is a member of the golf and chess clubs.
In order to succeed so highly in swimming, Finkel and the rest of his team have a rigorous practice schedule. During peak season, Finkel practices 20 hours a week. He has double practice four times a week, which means a 5:30 a.m. wake-up time for each of those mornings. Practices consist of lifting in the gym and training in the pool.
Finkel has faced a few injuries throughout his swimming career, but has managed to persist nonetheless. He dealt with two torn ligaments in his ankle at the beginning of this season, and has had multiple nerve and shoulder injuries. Finkel has done over two years of physical therapy, and considers himself injury-prone. He has also dealt with a lot of mental blocks and obstacles during his career, but manages to get through by always challenging and pushing himself harder.
“I don’t even know what life is without swimming anymore; it’s been my whole life,” Finkel said. “It’s like second nature to me. It takes a lot of conditioning to get faster in swimming. You have to keep pushing yourself, and I definitely push myself. I love the individual aspect because I feel like I’m not letting anyone down and I only have myself to blame. I work my hardest not to disappoint myself and not to disappoint my team.”
While Finkel doesn’t have any specific good luck charms, he does employ a pre-race strategy. “I like deep breathing,” Finkel said. “I look like I’m having a panic attack behind the block, but I’m just zoned in. I’d say the overall summary of my ritual is that I like to zone in, take deep breaths, and just YOLO, go for it.”
Finkel attributes his success to a few key people who have guided him throughout his career, including his parents, his high school swim coach, Sean Farrell, his current college coach, Marc Benvenuti, and all of his teammates who have helped and supported each other along the way.
“I’m so thankful for Conn swimming,” Finkel said. “I’ve done better in these last two years than I have in my entire swimming career. Conn swimming is something different. It’s not a team, it’s a family. It destroys my expectations. It’s so fun to do the sport you love with the people you love. My teammates and I have all built our lives around swimming, so we can relate very well. My best friends here are swimmers and it’s easy to connect with them. We have such a good culture, so that makes it more fun. It’s like torture but, I love being tortured with my teammates.”
Although the star swimmer has already broken and exceeded his current goals, he has plans for his future swimming career that guarantee to push him further.
“I’m really happy with myself and where I am,” Finkel said. “I didn’t even expect to be here, so it’s awesome. I have high goals, but a lot of the goals I set for this year, I completed. So, I’m not really sure where to go from here. After college, I’d love to train for a triathlon. But while I’m here, I’d like to make the U.S. Olympic Trials and continue to keep breaking all of my current records. In my senior year, I would love to set the NCAA records in my events.”
Justin is finishing up his sophomore year and still has 2 years left to accomplish those big goals. Make sure to check him and the entire swim team out next season!
