Dressel Ties Olympic Record, Majerski Joins Sub-51 Club In Men’s 100 Fly

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Caeleb Dressel carried the momentum from his first individual Olympic gold medal on Thursday morning forward into the evening preliminaries, equalling the Olympic Record in the men’s 100 butterfly.

Dressel cruised through the opening 50 meters of the eighth and final heat, turning fifth in 23.85 before powering up the jets with a scorching back-half of 26.54, touching in 50.39 to match Joseph Schooling‘s Games Record set in 2016.

Split Comparison

The swim also registers as a tie for the 16th-fastest in history, with Dressel now owning 11 of the 17-quickest ever.

The 24-year-old American is the world record holder with his time of 49.50 at the 2019 World Championships, having won the last two World titles along with the 2018 Pan Pac gold medal.

There were also several National Records set in the 100 fly prelims:

• Poland’s Jakub Majerski broke 51 seconds for the first time set set a new National Record, extinguishing his previous Polish mark of 51.11 set at the European Championships earlier this year in 50.97. With that swim, the 20-year-old qualifies third into the semis, trailing only Dressel and Hungarian Kristof Milak (50.62).
• Luis Martinez downed his Guatemalan Record in a time of 51.29, advancing seventh through to the semis. Martinez held the previous record at 51.44, set at the 2019 Pan Am Games.
• Nyls Korstanje clocked in at 51.54 to qualify 11th from the prelims, lowering his Dutch National Record of 51.65 set in May.
• Youssef Ramadan, a standout in the NCAA this past season at Virginia Tech, took down his month-old Egyptian Record of 51.83 in a time of 51.67, good to tie for 14th and qualify for the semi-finals.
• Tomoe Hvas, who set a new Norwegian Record en route to qualifying for the 200 IM semis in yesterday’s prelim session, downed his 100 fly record of 52.39 in 52.22, finishing 27th overall.

As for the defending Olympic champion Schooling, he’s been well off form over the last few years, and hasn’t been able to come anywhere near medal contention here in Tokyo. Schooling finished 44th overall in a time of 53.12.

The more surprising miss was South African Chad Le Clos, who has won back-to-back Olympic silver medals in the 100 fly and was the 2015 world champion.

The South African finished in a tie for 18th, clocking 51.89, to miss the semis barring multiple scratches.