Caeleb Dressel wins gold in men’s freestyle relay swimming

Caeleb Dressel is adding one more medal to his Olympic collection.

And it’s gold.

The Green Cove Springs swimmer, racing his third Olympics, won gold as part of the United States 4×100-meter men’s freestyle relay team in Saturday’s first day of Olympic competition inside the Paris La Defense Arena.

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Combining with United States teammates Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano and Hunter Armstrong, Dressel entered the pool with a massive lead for the anchor leg, and completed the relay quartet to a first-place 3:09.28. Australia took silver, more than a second behind, while Italy received the bronze.

With his eighth gold medal, Dressel joins an exclusive list of athletes in Summer Olympic history: Matt Biondi, Usain Bolt, Ray Ewry, Birgit Fischer, Sawao Kato and Jenny Thompson also own eight gold medals.

How to watch:Caeleb Dressel swims for gold for Team USA at Paris Olympics

The race was the second of the day for Dressel, who also raced the anchor leg in the preliminaries to help the American team qualify for the final.

What’s next for Caeleb Dressel at 2024 Olympics?

The 27-year-old Dressel, who won two gold medals in relays at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and captured five more golds five years later in Tokyo, still has as many as four more medal opportunities in Paris.

He has already qualified to race the 100 butterfly and the 50 free, the fastest of all aquatic events at the Games. He is also expected to race the butterfly leg in the men’s 4×100 medley relay — an event where he could team up with Northeast Florida colleague Ryan Murphy — and he could also receive a selection for the mixed medley relay, in which the United States team consists of two men and two women.

Dressel is scheduled to race his next event Thursday morning in the 50 free preliminaries.

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