Caeleb Dressel, right, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday in Tokyo. David Goldman/Associated Press
TOKYO — Make it five for Caeleb Dressel.
The American star won his fourth and fifth gold medals of the Tokyo Games on Sunday, finishing off one of the great performances in Olympic history. He joins an elite club of just four other swimmers ever with at least five gold medals at one games.
Dressel swam the butterfly leg as the Americans set a world record in the 400-meter medley relay with a time of 3 minutes, 26.78 seconds – eclipsing the mark of 3:27.28 they set at the 2009 world championships in rubberized suits.
Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew and Zach Apple joined Dressel on the winning team, ensuring the Americans closed out the swimming competition with another gold in a race they’ve never lost at the Olympics.
Earlier in the session, Dressel won the 50 freestyle for his third individual title of the games. He also won two golds on relays.
Dressel starred at the pool along with Australia’s Emma McKeon, who won two more golds Sunday to push her overall total to seven – four gold and three bronze.
Mirroring Dressel’s final day, McKeon won the 50 free and took the butterfly leg on the Aussies’ winning medley relay team on the women’s side.
McKeon became the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single games. The only men to do it are Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.
In the 50 freestyle, Dressel cruised to a relatively easy win in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching in an Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.
When the 24-year-old Floridian saw his time and, more important, the “1” beside his name, he splashed the water and flexed his bulging arms.
In keeping with the theme of the day, Bobby Finke pulled off his own sweep in the two longest freestyle races.
With another strong finishing kick, Finke became the first American man in 37 years to win the 1,500 freestyle. He added to his victory in the 800 free, a new men’s event at these games.
Just as he did in the 800, Finke stayed close throughout the 30-lap race and turned on the speed at the end. He touched in 14 minutes, 39.65 seconds.
Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk took the silver in 14:40.66, while the bronze went to Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in 14:40.91. Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri faded to fourth in 14:45.01.
The top four were close nearly the entire race, often separated by less than a second. But that was right where Finke needed to be. After his closing lap in the 800, he knew he had the speed at the end to beat everyone else.
Finke has been perhaps the biggest American surprise at the pool. Relatively unknown before the U.S. trials, he became the first American male to win the grueling event since Mike O’Brien at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
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