CLEARWATER, Fla. — Editor's note: Argentina defeated France in a tense overtime shootout to capture the World Cup.
Nicholas the Dolphin, Clearwater Marine Aquarium's (CMA) resident sports expert, has once again made his prediction of a major sporting event, this time making his pick for the winner of the 2022 World Cup Final between France and Argentina.
Nick has been making these sports predictions since 2017 and he's pretty good at it — he's correctly picked the winner 16 out of 26 attempts, or 61.5 percent of the time. You can see his full track record here.
Recently, he correctly chose the Houston Astros to beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 World Series. As for his World Cup predictions, he's done it once before in 2018 and he correctly predicted France would beat Croatia.
Now, he's predicting who will win the 2022 World Cup Final on Sunday — France or Argentina.
Here's how Nicholas makes his predictions: Nicholas is given the choice during his normal enrichment activities. CMA says animal care specialists presented Nicholas with pictures of the flags of France and Argentina placed on the outside of his habitat.
He then made his selection by touching the flag of his choice with his rostrum, aka his "nose" or "beak."
Which team did Nicholas choose to win it all for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022? France, just as he did back in 2018.
Will he be correct? We'll find out starting at 10 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.
Nicholas' longest streak of predicting the correct winner was from the 2020 Super Bowl through the 2021 College Football National Championship.
The beloved bottlenose dolphin has been with CMA since Christmas Eve 2002, when he and his mother were rescued in Gibsonton. Nicholas, named after Saint Nicholas due to being found during the Christmas season, was about six months old when he was discovered.
He had second and third-degree sunburns over 36 percent of his body. His mother, Noelle, also had third-degree burns and also a suspected respiratory illness. She died days after their rescue, leaving baby Nick an orphan.
"Because he lacked necessary survival skills he would have learned from his mother, Nicholas did not make a suitable candidate for release, so Clearwater Marine Aquarium became his forever home," CMA explained in a news release.
Nick has lived at the marine animal rescue facility longer than any of the other dolphins there. Visitors can see him spending time with his buddy Hemingway.