By Peggy Shinn
TOKYO — Caeleb Dressel is as humble
and understated as they come. He gives others credit before accepting it
himself, and he preferred it when no one knew his name.
At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,
Dressel let his swimming do the talking, and now everyone knows his name.
On the final morning of competition
at the Tokyo Aquatic Center, Dressel set an Olympic record in the men’s
50-meter freestyle. He led swimming’s “splash and dash” from start to finish,
touching the wall in 21.07, almost a half-second ahead of silver medalist
Florent Manaudou from France (2012 gold medalist in the 50 freestyle). It was
the largest winning margin in a men’s Olympic 50 free ever and dropped the
Olympic record by over a quarter-second.
Bruno Fratus from Brazil, a two-time
world championship runner-up to Dressel in the 50, filled out the podium.
Just over an hour later, Dressel
helped the U.S. men win a gold medal in the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay,
breaking a 12-year-old world record in the process. They were swimming in lane
1 and had been labeled underdogs.
The U.S. team of Olympic gold
medalists Ryan Murphy, Zach Apple, and Dressel, plus Michael Andrew swimming
breaststroke swam medley relay in 3:26.78, beating the favored British team by
0.73 seconds and smashing the world record by a half-second. That world record
had been set at the 2009 world championships by a U.S. team that included
Michael Phelps.
The Italians touched the wall in
third for the bronze medal.
It was the perfect end to the Tokyo
Olympic Games for Dressel, where he added five gold medals to the two that he
won swimming relays at the 2016 Rio Games.
“In the Olympics, there is a
whirlwind of emotions,” said Dressel. “It's really a challenge to move in and
out of all these emotions and step up to each race with a clear mind. To come
out at the end of this meet with the world record, with a gold medal alongside
these guys, I couldn't ask for anything better.”
Now with a total of seven Olympic
gold medals, Dressel moved into the pantheon of Olympic swimmers. Only two
other male swimmers have won gold medals in three or more individual events in
one Games: Mark Spitz won four individual events at the 1972 Games, and Michael
Phelps did it twice (four in 2004 and five in 2008).
But it wasn’t easy. Dressel was nervous
before races. He probably lost 10 pounds this week, he said, unable to sleep,
eat, or nap, and he was shaking all the time.
“It's not the most enjoyable process,
but it is worth it,” he confessed. “Every part of it is worth it. Just because
it's bad doesn't mean it's not worth it.”
Despite his nerves, Dressel got on a
roll this week, anchoring the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay to the gold medal on
Monday, then three days later winning the 100 freestyle for his first
individual gold medal.
That medal “just freed him up to
swim,” said U.S. men’s coach Dave Durden. “It's hard. Everyone knows it's hard.
Then once you do it, it's a deep, deep exhale, and then he can go after it.”
With four of his six races scheduled
in the final two days of the Olympic meet, Dressel made a tough schedule look
easy, setting a world record in the 100 butterfly yesterday, then the Olympic
record in the 50 freestyle today. Dressel is the two-time defending world
champion in the 50 free.
The only loss he has suffered in
Olympic competition was the U.S.’s fifth-place finish in the mixed medley
relay, which Dressel anchored. The mixed relay had just finished when Murphy —
who had swum the backstroke leg — leaned down and told Dressel, “We got
business to take care of.”
“I was still in the water,” Dressel
guffawed. “I had not even gotten out of water, and Ryan’s already talking about
the medley relay. That's how we work here. We knew we had a shot of doing
something special today.”
Last night, the four men chosen for
the medley relay met with U.S. coaches, who had written splits on a board. If
Murphy could swim the backstroke in a similar time to his bronze-medal-winning
performance earlier in the week, and if Andrew could do the same in
breaststroke, Dressel in butterfly, and Apple in freestyle, then the U.S. had a
chance to break the world record.
“That's all the hype we needed,” said
Murphy. “We were really excited to go into that race, really excited to show
what we could do.”
When told that only Mark Spitz and
Phelps have won more Olympic gold medals in one Olympic Games, Dressel
downplayed the comparison.
“For me to have my little stamp on
the sport, of course it's special,” he said. “I don't want to take anything
away from Michael, I don't want to take anything away from Mark. It's not my
goal to beat anybody in particular, it's about achieving what I feel like my
potential is.”
U.S. Women Out-Touched By Australia
In The Medley Relay, Take Silver
Just before the U.S. men ended 2020
Olympic swimming competition with the gold medal, the U.S. women’s medley relay
team came close to winning a gold of their own.
Facing one of the greatest women’s
teams ever from Australia — including Emma McKeon, who won seven Olympic medals
in Tokyo and now has 11 total — the U.S. women came oh-so-close to winning the
medley relay for an 11th time in Olympic history.
But they were passed by the
Australians in the final lap. The Aussies won their third gold medal in an
Olympic medley relay, breaking the Olympic record with a time of 3:51.60.
The U.S. team of Regan Smith, Lydia
Jacoby, Torri Huske, and Abbey Weitzeil also broke the Olympic record — set by
the U.S. women at the 2012 Games — finishing in 3:51.73 for the silver medal.
With three Olympic rookies on the
relay team (who are also teenagers), the silver medal was an accomplishment.
Gold medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke earlier in the week, Jacoby had
never even done a relay at such a big meet. Her teammates had taught her how to
start a relay during the pre-Olympic training camp. Then Jacoby’s goggles had
come off during the mixed medley relay yesterday.
This time, her goggles stayed put,
and Jacoby pulled the U.S. team into a half-second lead over Australia.
“I don't think anyone's ever been
happier to have their goggles on when they hit the water,” Jacoby exclaimed.
Huske, who had also competed in the
mixed medley relay, then increased the team’s lead in the butterfly. But
Weitzeil faced former 100-meter freestyle world record holder Cate Campbell in
the anchor leg. The American fought valiantly but came up just 0.13 seconds
short.
“The goal is always gold,” said
Weitzeil, the only Olympic veteran on the U.S. medley relay team. “We have high
standards here on Team USA for ourselves. So it hits you at the wall when you
don't see the gold next to your team.”
But then she put it into perspective.
“We're racing the best in the world,
and we're so close to being gold,” she added. “We're just so proud of
ourselves.”
Want to follow Team USA athletes
during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020? Visit TeamUSA.org/Tokyo2020 to view the
medal table, results and competition schedule.
Peggy Shinn
An award-winning freelance writer
based in Vermont, Peggy Shinn has covered six Olympic Games. She has
contributed to TeamUSA.org since its inception in 2008.
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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