There’s a reason the U.S. swimming team sees Dressel as the ultimate firewall against the oncoming tides of parity from Australia and other rivals. There’s a reason the Americans choose 90 percent of Dressel’s best over 100 percent of anyone else. There’s a reason the Americans chose him for the crucial anchor leg instead of a faster, younger teammate who gave Dressel the lead Saturday night.
Team USA won its first gold medal when the 27-year-old touched the wall more than a second before the Australian to his right. Dressel and three other young men, Jack Alexie (21), Chris Juliano (21) and Hunter Armstrong (23), finished in 3 minutes 9.28 seconds, comfortably beating the runner-up Australia (3 minutes 10.35) and the bronze medalist Italy (3 minutes 10.70).
“They made my job easier,” Dressel said.
For Dressel, the win marks one of the most remarkable milestones in recent swimming history. He remains undefeated in Olympic finals, having been on the starting block eight times and winning eight gold medals. While he’s not as invincible as he was in Tokyo, where he won five gold medals and cemented his status as the best male swimmer in the world, he remains an elite athlete whose ability to reach for the wall remains among the best in the world.
“Honestly, the relays are even more special. I remember my first time winning gold,” Dressel said, reflecting on her two relay victories at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. “I never really get tired of it. Standing on the podium with these guys is really special.”
The crowd at La Défense Arena, a 30,000-seat indoor stadium that’s home to the Racing 92 rugby team, cheered the Americans with slightly less energy and volume than the French swimmers. The Australian national anthem, “Advance Australia Fair,” was sung twice, and then “The Star-Spangled Banner” was finally played for the final awards ceremony of the night. On the top step of the podium, Armstrong was in tears as the anthem played.
“I’m just giving my all to these kids,” Armstrong said of his time of 46.75 seconds, the fastest of the four Americans, after swimming the third leg. “I knew I had to give it my all for Caleb, and I’m happy I was able to do my job.”
If Dressel’s last place on that relay was a consolation for her three teammates, it was a consolation for the entire team that it came last in a race card that was so unfavorable in the opening round. The win saved the Americans from winning the gold medal outright, but they already trail their Australian rivals in gold medals (2-1) and overall medals (4-3).
Earlier on Saturday night, Australian middle-distance star Ariarne Titmuss competed in the fight of the century against American long-distance legend Katie Ledecky and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh. to retreatShe touched the wall in 3:57.49, nearly a second faster than silver medalist McIntosh (3:58.37) and more than three seconds faster than Ledecky (4:00.86). The bronze medal was the first of Ledecky’s career Olympic medal, and she now sits one shy of the all-time record for a female swimmer with three medals, adding to her seven golds and three silvers.
You have to go back to 1988 to find the last year that the U.S. swimming team did not top the medal count. That year, the U.S. won eight gold medals and 18 overall to East Germany’s 11 and 28. But Australia, in particular, was catching up fast, having surpassed the U.S. in gold medals at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, a year earlier. Notably, Dressel did not swim in that event, having taken an eight-month break. Mental Health Break From sports.
In the women’s competition, Australia has already overtaken the U.S. team as the world’s No. 1 team, based on the results of the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Championships, where Australia has won twice as many gold medals as the U.S.
Then on Saturday, the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay of Molly O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris (3:28.92) outclassed the silver-medal-winning American quartet of Kate Douglas, Gretchen Walsh, Tori Fuske and Simone Manuel (3:30.20). But Walsh and Fuske, who placed first and second in Saturday’s semifinals, give the U.S. a shot at a gold and silver sweep in the 100 butterfly on Sunday.
Like Dressel, the 27-year-old Manuel had been absent from the international stage in recent years, having been forced to take an extended break due to a bout of overtraining syndrome. Like Dressel, she poured boundless emotion and energy into getting back in shape. And like Dressel, she saw the anchor position as a calling she once thought she might never get again.
“Honestly, I’m just happy to be back here,” Manuel said, “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to perform at this level again, so to have that full circle moment from 2021 to now, to be able to be back in this relay, happier and healthier, is really special. So I’m super excited to win my first medal in Paris with these ladies.”
Like Dressel and Ledecky, Manuel represents the program’s glory days. All three won gold medals in Rio in 2016, Michael Phelps’ final Olympics, a year when the U.S. was still expected to dominate the medal count, with 16 gold medals and 33 overall to second-place Australia’s three and 10 overall. The pipeline of talent seemed endless.
The veterans’ efforts alone will likely not be enough to lift the U.S. back to that status, if that’s still possible, and the remaining eight days of the tournament will show whether the younger generation has what it takes to hold Australia, and the rest of the world, up another generation.
