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)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
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Caeleb Dressel delivered under pressure.
The American has been swimming’s undisputed superstar on the men’s side since the retirement of Michael Phelps in 2016, having dominated the last two World Championships with a combined 13 gold and 15 total medals.
But, from the perspective of many, he had to get it done on the biggest stage in order to truly cement himself as one of the world’s best. And he did just that.
Although Dressel’s final medal tally of five fell well short of what some had forecasted for him, especially after his World Championship performances, he swam flawlessly.
The 24-year-old Florida native won all three of his individual events, becoming the first male swimmer to earn a trio of gold medals on his own since Phelps did so five times in 2008.
Dressel saved his best for last, too, winning the men’s 50 freestyle in an Olympic Record time of 21.07 to open the last session before dropping a scorching 49.03 butterfly leg as the U.S. men broke the world record in the 400 medley relay.
The former Florida Gator joins an elite club with his five gold medals, becoming just the fourth male swimmer to win that many. He joins Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.
Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi, Michael Phelps and Caeleb Dressel are the only male swimmers with five gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Legends pic.twitter.com/k25ZDoTJZo
— ESPN (@espn) August 1, 2021
Dressel provided critical legs on the victorious men’s 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay, and his lone event that didn’t result in a gold medal, the fifth-place-finishing mixed 400 medley relay, had nothing to do with his performance, but was more a coaching staff blunder in terms of selecting the correct order.
So with all eyes on him and endless promotion from the mainstream media, plus having to sit on the sidelines and wait until the fourth day of competition before his first individual event (something he admitted wore on him at the Olympic Trials), Dressel fulfilled all expectations placed on him, and did so masterfully.
NORTH AMERICA QUICK HITS, DAY 8
- Bobby Finke became the first American to win the men’s 1500 freestyle since 1984, dropping more than six seconds from his best time in 14:39.65 to claim gold and narrowly miss Connor Jaeger‘s American Record (14:39.48).
- The American women took second and Canada third in the 400 medley relay, with the U.S. swimmers producing a time of 3:51.73, 13 one-hundredths shy of the gold medal-winning Aussies. The Canadians clocked 3:52.60 to smash their National Record and win bronze, equalling their medal tally from Rio with six total medals. Penny Oleksiak anchored the team to win her third medal in Tokyo and seventh overall, becoming he most decorated Canadian Olympian of all-time.
- The U.S. men kept their unbeaten streak in the 400 medley relay intact with a world record-breaking 3:26.78 swim to conclude the Games, lowering the 2009 mark of 3:27.28. Ryan Murphy won his third medal of the Games and sixth overall, Dressel claimed his fifth gold in Tokyo and seventh overall, Zach Apple anchored his second relay team to gold, and Michael Andrew won an Olympic gold medal for the first time.
RECORDS, DAY 8
- World/Olympic/American – United States, Men’s 400 Medley Relay (3:26.78)
- Olympic – Caeleb Dressel, Men’s 50 freestyle (21.07)
- Canadian – Canada, Women’s 400 Medley Relay (3:52.60)
NORTH AMERICAN MEDAL TABLE AFTER DAY 6
| TOTAL MEDALS | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | |
| USA | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 |
| Canada | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Correction about what I wrote about Caeleb Dressel.
I wrote that he was the first man to do the triple 50 free/100 free/100 fly at olympics since Mark Spitz.
My bad. There was no 50 free at 1972 olympics so Caeleb Dressel is the first man to do that triple at olympics.
Inge De Bruijn did it on the women’s side in 2000.
Watching Dressel on NBC show. He looks like Clark Kent!
Still not over Dressel’s masterclass in sprint fly. That botched 49.4 is so ridiculous especially in light of the fact that the consensus greatest butterflyer of all time went 51 in the past two games.
Has Dressel replaced Phelps as the guy you show in the video room for fly technique?
Well Milak probably swam faster than Dressel in the actual stroke, just got destroyed undetwater.
And besides just because someone swims faster doesn’t mean that they have better technique. Irie hasn’t medalled at a major meet since 2012, but he should still be the go to guy for backstroke technique.
we need to have a serious discussion about retiring the 50/100/200/400 records from 2009.
We already know the 200 is unbeatable, but if Dressel cant beat the 50/100, nobody can.
In my head, 400 free WR is Ian Thorpe’s 3:40.08
I think they’re still attainable. Remember a lot of these guys also missed some pool time from Covid and coupled with a couple other arbitrary factors could’ve been faster.
The true WRs are 21.04/46.96/1:42.96/3:40.08.
21.04/46.96/1:43.14/3:40.08
How many individual Gold Medals did Spitz, Biondi, Phelps, and Dressel get for their first Olympics?
I think the SwimSwam commentariat has been too harsh on a certain American swimmer. I don’t think you can place the same expectations on him with the Mount Rushmore of American swimming. If you had told me a year ago the results he had right now, I would say that it was a very successful Olympic Games.
Individual medals: Spitz had 4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze when he was 2;, Biondi had 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze when he was 22; Phelps had 4 gold and 1 bronze when he was 19, 9 gold and 1 bronze when he was 23.
Michael Andrew is obviously an amazing swimmer and making 3 Olympic finals is a huge accomplishment but I don’t see what comparing him to the greats was supposed to result in
Phelps had no medals in his first Olympics at 15.
yeah i know, i went by the medals they had when they were around MA’s age
Jeff, I specifically mentioned first Olympics. If you want to look at age, compare the times for Spitz and Biondi with MA at same age.
Look at results from 1968 and 1984 Olympics.
just seems a little unfair to compare two 18 year olds and a 15 year old to a 22 year old. Absolute times are not the concern here
The point that I’m making is that the absolute greats did not do well in their first Olympics. In terms of age, you should compare him to Caeleb Dressel instead of Olympians from over 35 years ago. Caeleb Dressel is 24 now and Michael Andrew will be 25 in Paris.
It is still too early to judge MA as he only started training for the 200IM for 1 year. Even then his training was interrupted by the Covid pandemic.
As a MA fan, my biggest fear will be that he will focus on the stroke 50s as that lends itself very well for USRPT and he won’t adjust his training to be the WR holder in the 200… Read more »
Just a reminder that America came a distant 5th in the mixed relay.
I’m still working that one out.
How can a team get it so incredibly wrong
Embarrassing
That has ZERO to do with Dressel, who split 46.9 on that relay after two other swims that night.
Not enough love given to Bobby Finke and his 2 last 50 crushing golds. Yes, no Sun Yang in the final but not sure this time it would have mattered. Finke is a racer and did what he needed to do to win. With that much left in the tank, wonder how he would do taking it out more aggressively. He likely has a great 400m in him too.
And he’s only 21 years old!
Right? People slag on MA’s race strategy – which, is definitely very valid – but (smartly) I haven’t seen many, “why finke no go out faster and win by more 🤔???”
He swam those races perfectly for an Olympic final – sorta like a distance race in track, just position yourself to blow by the field in the last stretch – but it does make me think he could have obliterated Jaeger’s 1500 record if he didn’t come back in a …. wait I was at a wedding last night and just looked up the split now, 25.78!? Jesus christmas.
In short, let’s get an entire heat to rabbit Finke to like a 14:20.
Sun Yang wasn’t there for a reason… The times a cheater might have went shouldn’t even factor into the discussion
Dressel’s dominance in the free/fly sprints over the last 4 years is unreal. On top of that, he’s a great guy and seems to be a great teammate as well.
I feel like we see this a lot where someone dominates for a few years and pushes everyone else to even greater heights. I think at the next world championships it will be much harder for Dressel to triple gold in his individual events because of the younger guys who are just starting to come in to their own (Kolesnikov, Milak, Popovici, Hwang, etc.)
It gotta end somewhere. He did the triple twice at worlds then walked the talk at the games. He doesn’t have anything left to prove. Hope he tries some off events now tbh