– Tokyo champion finished sixth in 50m freestyle final – Failed to qualify for 100m butterfly final
Caeleb Dressel was left in tears on Friday night after failing to defend his Tokyo Olympic gold medals in both of the individual events he’d qualified for in Paris.
The Florida native, who turns 28 next month, finished sixth in the 50m freestyle final before coming in 13th in the 100m butterfly semi-finals after winning gold in both events three years ago in Tokyo.
“It was very obviously not my best work,” Dressel said. “But the racing has been really fun here. Walking out for the 50 and the 100 fly, it was special. I don’t want to ever forget that.
The road to Dressel’s third Olympics has been anything but straightforward. In 2022, less than a year after his five-gold breakout in Tokyo, he withdrew in the middle of the world championships and took eight months away from the pool to address his mental health.
When he returned at the next year’s US national championships, Dressel didn’t come anywhere close to qualifying for worlds, failing to make the A-final in either sprint freestyle race.
Having been deemed the successor to Michael Phelps since racking up a record-tying seven golds at the 2017 world championships, Dressel admitted to struggling with the weight of expectations.
Australia’s Cameron McEvoy took gold in the 50m free, becoming the first Australian man to win gold at these Olympics.
It’s hasn’t all been bad for Dressel. On Saturday, he anchored the Americans to a third consecutive 4x100m freestyle title on the opening night of the swimming program to win his eighth medal at the Summer Games, all of them gold, extending one of the great records in Olympic history.
Australia’s Kaylee McCown chased down Regan Smith of the United States to win the 100m backstroke in a time of 2min 3.73min, breaking Missy Franklin’s 12-year-old Olympic record set at the London Games.
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