Swimming: Caeleb Dressel wins gold in 50-meter freestyle, his fourth of the Games

Caeleb Dressel won his fourth gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a victory in the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.

Published : Aug 01, 2021 07:28 IST

Caeleb Dressel of the United States celebrates after setting an Olympic record to win gold.

Caeleb Dressel won his fourth gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a victory in the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.

Dressel cruised to a relatively easy victory in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching the wall in an Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.

 

Florent Manaudou of France won the silver, and Bruno Fratus of Brazil took the bronze, edging out American Michael Andrew for the final spot on the podium.

Dressel has one more shot at gold in the 4x100 medley relay, an event the United States has never lost at the Olympics. He’ll swim the butterfly leg in a race that caps nine days of swimming competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

 

If Dressel claims a fifth victory, he will join Americans Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi and East Germany’s Kristin Otto as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics. Phelps did it three times.

Finke bags gold

Robert Finke of the United States won the gold medal in the men's 1500m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 21-year-old delivered a devastating final 50m to pull clear and touch first in 14min 39.65sec. Romanchuk (14:40.66) took silver ahead of Germany's Florian Wellbrock (14.40.91).