American Bobby Finke set a new world record as he secured his second consecutive Olympic 1500m freestyle title at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

Finke withstood challenges from Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri and Ireland's Daniel Wiffen to finish in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 14:31.02 set by China's Sun Yang at the London 2012 Games.

Paltrinieri claimed silver in 14:34.55, and Wiffen won bronze in 14:39.63.

"The world's getting faster, and I think it's a really good thing," Finke said of his new benchmark as he praised the level of competition at these Games.

"It's a really healthy thing for the sport. If one country is always dominating, I can't really sit there and say the sport is growing. As we're not dominating any more, I think it's good for the sport, and it shows how far the sport has come."

Finke joins compatriot Mike Burton, Russian Vladimir Salnikov and Australian pair Grant Hackett and Kieren Perkins as the only multiple Olympic champions in this event.

The reigning champion and pre-race favorite made a quick start, opening up a seemingly comfortable lead after 300 meters.

But Rio 2016 gold medalist Paltrinieri closed the gap, drawing within a body length at the midway point before the American found another gear to surge away in the final 400m.

"I kind of saw I had a pretty decent lead at like the 300 [meter mark]," the 24-year-old said. "I knew I kind of just had to keep going, and hopefully try and make the guys hurt a little bit trying to catch up to me. But they started catching up to me. I was getting a little worried, but I knew I just had to keep pushing. As long as I can keep a little bit of the distance, I knew I was in a good shape for the end of the race."

Finke said he felt greater pressure to perform given the race was the last individual swimming final in Paris.

"At the 300 mark, I was maybe a body length ahead. I was like, 'I can't let go of this now. I can't be the guy who got ran down after I do all the running down.' That was also a big factor in my mind. I just kept that back there, and I was just trying to keep going."