Caeleb Dressel, the fastest man in the world in water, has joined Americans Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany’s Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics.
Dressel stormed to gold Sunday in the 50m freestyle – finishing 0.48 seconds ahead of second place Florent Manadou.
Just over 75 minutes after Dressel dominated the 50, he came out and swam the butterfly section of the medley to help Team USA win gold in a world record race.
An emotional Dressel hugged his teammates, Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew and Zach Apple after the 3:26:78 race.
The win for the Americans extended an unbeaten streak in the event.
Dressel entered the day with golds in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly, in which he set the world record.
Brilliance.
That’s the best word to wrap up Dressel’s Tokyo Olympics performance.
The men’s relay race capped nine days of swimming competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.