By John Frierson
Staff Writer

In and out of the pool, Nic Fink has always been willing to put in the work. A two-time Olympian with one gold medal and two silvers, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Georgia and a master’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Georgia Tech, Fink has many athletic and intellectual gifts — but his work ethic may be his greatest strength.

“He was a perfect athlete,” former Georgia swimming and diving coach Jack Bauerle said of Fink, who swam for the Bulldogs from 2011-15 and continued training at Georgia for many years as a professional. “He never questioned any stupid thing that I gave him, and he always took the hardest route. … Inherently, he had a sense that his hard work was good for him.”

Dave Bliss was a hard-working center on the Georgia men’s basketball team from 2004-08, as well as the 2008 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He got into coaching after he graduated, first as a volunteer assistant at Georgia and then as a graduate assistant at VCU, where he got a master’s in Education.

After that, Bliss moved on to the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, where he started as a video coordinator and then player development coach. Bliss kept working and developing as a coach, spending the 2015-18 season as an assistant with the New York Knicks before returning to Oklahoma City, and he was on the Thunder bench as the lead assistant and defensive coordinator in June when OKC won the NBA title.

When the UGA Alumni Association released its annual list of 40 Under 40 standouts earlier this month, Fink and Bliss made the list. Also recognized was former Georgia football student assistant and grad assistant Mike Macdonald, now the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

“After sitting on it for a couple of days, it’s kind of really cool,” Fink said of the honor. “There are tremendous alumni, tremendous graduates and people associated with the University of Georgia, and to be honored amongst them is really humbling and a very cool experience.”

All three former Bulldogs share a willingness to work their way to the top. All three were also students in the Morehead Honors College.

“Anytime you can get recognized like that, in that university setting, it’s obviously a huge school with a lot of successful people, it’s a huge honor,” Bliss said.

Fink was a good junior swimmer, but not one of the top recruits in the country coming out of high school. At Georgia, he was a 19-time All-American and six-time SEC champion, winning the 100-yard breaststroke all four years and the 200 as a junior and senior. He got better every year at Georgia, and then blossomed even more as a pro. Along with his three Olympic medals that he earned in Paris in 2024, Fink has 13 World Championships medals, including six golds.

Along with his substantial training as an elite swimmer, Fink worked full-time with Quanta Utility Engineering Services. Juggling two very demanding jobs wasn’t easy, but he’s no stranger to a rigorous schedule.

“I would say that I’m definitely proud of my ability to kind of balance things. I would also say it’s been made easier because I’ve had a lot of help,” said Fink, who lives in Atlanta with his wife, former Georgia swimming standout Melanie Margalis Fink, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist, and their newborn son.

“I have a wife who has been very supportive of my being busy all the time and me having meets to go to. She gets that part a lot more than someone else might. I think I just got to a healthier place later on in my career, the more years that went by, of not being complacent but just satisfied with what I had accomplished. I kind of knew that anything going forward would just be icing on the cake.”

Fink still works for Quanta and still stays in good shape, but he’s not getting in the pool too much these days. He also hasn’t officially retired from swimming, and the idea of competing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is intriguing, especially with the recent addition of the 50-meter breaststroke event.

“There is definitely a pathway for me to continue to compete, but we’ll see,” he said. “We just welcomed a newborn into the house this fall, and I’ve really needed a big break because I’ve been swimming for forever, so it’s been really easy and fun just focusing on him.”

As a student at Georgia, Macdonald, who earned his bachelor’s degree in 2010 and his master’s in 2013, coached linebackers and running backs at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens from 2008-09, before working as a student assistant at Georgia in 2010. He then served as a grad assistant for the Bulldogs from 2011-13; his pro coaching career began as an intern with the Baltimore Raves in 2014.

By 2017, Macdonald was the Ravens’ defensive backs coach, then the linebackers coach. In 2021, he was the defensive coordinator at Michigan, before returning to the Ravens to lead their defense in 2022-23. The following year, Seattle hired him as its head coach.

Bliss earned degrees in Real Estate and Political Science from Georgia while also starting 112 career games. The 6-foot-10 center averaged a career-best 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds a game as a senior, helping the Bulldogs capture the 2008 SEC Tournament title.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do coming out of high school other than pursue basketball at the highest level I could,” Bliss said. “I just tried to open a lot of doors, which kind of explains my academic path. … It wasn’t really until I was having to walk away from the game that I was like, I don’t want to do that. Getting into coaching, I just wanted to dip my toes in it to see if I would like it, and it ended up becoming a second passion for me.”

The best part of his job, Bliss said, was the relationships with the players and “getting to foster their growth and help them encounter the challenges they encounter.”

Just as Fink has reached the highest levels in swimming, Bliss and the Thunder got there this summer. Oklahoma City edged the Indiana Pacers in seven games to capture the franchise’s first NBA title.

“My second year, we got to the Finals in 2012 and lost, so it took me 13 years to get back,” Bliss said. “It’s certainly been a lot of work and effort that has gone into getting there, and it’s pretty gratifying.”

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.