Caeleb Dressel anchors relay to Team USA’s first gold medal of Paris Olympics

It did not take Staff USA lengthy to succeed in the highest step of the swimming podium on the 2024 Olympics, because the U.S. males’s 4x100m freestyle relay crew secured the nation’s first gold of the Paris Video games in dominant trend on Saturday’s opening night time.

The American relay squad, that includes Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel, mixed to submit a time of three:09.28, adequate for gold by greater than a second over silver medalists Australia. Italy completed third to assert the bronze. 

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With the victory, the U.S. prolonged its profitable streak within the occasion to a few consecutive Video games. The Individuals have received gold in 11 of the final 14 editions of the lads’s 4x100m free relay on the Olympics.

For Dressel, the victory marked his eighth-career gold medal throughout three Olympics, elevating him right into a tie with countryman Matt Biondi for third all-time within the sport. Nonetheless, it was his first as a father. Dressel had his five-month-old son, August, cheering him on within the stands.

“My son getting to observe me win a gold medal is all the things,” Dressel instructed NBC’s Melissa Stark after the race, earlier than shifting the highlight to his youthful teammates. “I simply wished to get a gold medal for these guys. I’ve had my moments within the sport, it is time for these guys to have their enjoyable.”

Guiliano and Alexy, each 21, earned gold medals within the first race of their Olympic careers. 

“Coaching with all these guys, that shot my confidence by the roof,” Guiliano stated. “Attending to be behind the blocks with these guys, it is simply a right away feeling of, ‘We’re gonna do that.'”

For Armstrong, it is a second profession gold medal after the Tokyo males’s 4x100m medley relay, the place he swam within the prelims solely. The 23-year-old Ohioan posted one of the best break up of the quartet, finishing his third leg in 46.75 seconds. Armstrong attributed the blistering break up to preferring relays. Dressel, jokingly, had a special concept.

“I feel he misplaced 10 years of his life for that,” Dressel stated. “It at all times takes a particular efficiency. That was this man (Armstrong).”

Matt King and Ryan Held may also obtain gold medals for his or her participation in Saturday morning’s prelims.

The 4 finalists hope they will take the golden momentum with them into their particular person occasions to come back. Armstrong and Guiliano get again within the pool as quickly as Sunday, with heats and semifinals within the males’s 100m backstroke (Armstrong) and males’s 200m freestyle (Guiliano).