Finke's final 50 was 26.39 - nearly 2 seconds faster than anyone else. Germany's Florian Wellbrock snatched the lead from Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri on the final flip, with Finke lurking back in fourth.īut the American turned on the speed at the end of the 16-lap race, passing all three swimmers ahead of him to take the gold. "These moments are a lot different than worlds," Dressel conceded.įinke pulled out his victory with a dazzling burst on the final lap. He needed an individual gold to solidify his legacy. He turned in staggering performances at the past two world championships, earning seven gold medals at Budapest in 2017, followed by a six-gold, two-silver performance at Gwangju in 2019.Īs important as those meets were, they're not the Olympics. 1 indeed.ĭressel's gold was the second of the morning for the Americans, who got a surprise victory from Bobby Finke in the Olympic debut of the men's 800 free.Īlso winning golds: Australia's Izaac Stubblety-Cook in the men's 200 breaststroke and China's Zhang Yufei in the women's 200 butterfly.Īfter Michael Phelps retired, Dressel emerged as the world's dominant swimmer. Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Imagesĭressel climbed atop the lane rope, a look of wonder on his face, and held up the index finger on each hand - No. You have to rely on yourself, there's no one to bail you out from a bad split." Caeleb Dressel won the men's 100-meter freestyle in 47.02 seconds, setting an Olympic record. I guess I thought it would be, I just didn't want to admit to it," he said. Now, Dressel has earned a gold all by himself.
The first three gold medals of Dressel's career were all in the relays: two in Rio de Janeiro, another in the 4x100 free relay at the Tokyo Games. The bronze was claimed by Russian Olympic Committee swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44), who added to his silver in the 100 backstroke. I stuck to my race plan so if it got me first, OK, if it got me second, OK." Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. "During the race there's only so much you can do. "I wasn't worried about anything," Dressel said. Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine and Florian Wellbrock of Germany took silver and bronze, respectively.įinke went 25.7 in the final 50 meters to surge past Wellbrock and Romanchuk to secure his second gold medal of the Olympics.Īfter coming from out of nowhere to win the inaugural Olympic men's 800m freestyle earlier in the week, Finke stayed firmly among the top three for the entirety of the mile-long swim, then turned on the jets to complete the distance double.Dressel's winning time was an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds, a mere six-hundredths of a second ahead of Chalmers, who earned a silver medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Team USA's Connor Jaeger won silver in 2016 behind Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, who finished fourth on Saturday. "I was just trying to hold on and get my hand on the wall.”įinke is the first American to win gold in the event since Michael O'Brien in 1984. “My coaches have been working really hard with me this past year and all I knew is I had to try and race the others," Finke said. Bobby Finke charged in the final length once again to win the men's 1500m freestyle and complete an unprecedented sweep of the distance swimming events in Tokyo.