Swimming: Caeleb Dressel, Emma McKeon create Olympic records in 50m freestyle, win gold medals

Caeleb Dressel rewrote an Olympic record enroute to his fourth gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 when he clocked 21.07s in the men’s 50m freestyle event at the Tokyo Aquatics Center on Sunday.

France’s Florent Manaudou won silver (21.55) while Brazil’s Bruno Fratus took the bronze medal with a timing of 21.57s.

Read: Who is Caeleb Dressel? Net worth, records & Olympic performances

Later, in the women’s 50m freestyle, Australia’s Emma McKeon set an Olympic record when she won gold with a time of 23.81s. Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem and Denmark’s Pernille Blume, the defending champion, won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Caeleb Dressel was the leader and never gave up. He was just 16 hundredths of a second short of the world record but it was enough to rewrite the Olympic record.

Caeleb Dressel's fast start

The key to Caeleb Dressel’s win was a fast start and the swimmer never gave it up. After the win, he acknowledged his team-mates’ cheers, flexed his biceps and started his preparation for the next race, the 4x100m medley relay.

This is Caeleb Dressel’s fourth gold medal in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2021.

The US swimmer also has gold medals in the 4x100 freestyle relay, 100m freestyle and 100 butterfly.

Caeleb Dressel rewrote a world record in the 100m butterfly, clocking 49.45s.

Emma McKeon swims into record books

Later, Emma McKeon won her fourth gold medal and her seventh at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 when she clocked 23.81s in the women’s 50m freestyle event. She broke her own Olympic record to create a new one.

The 27-year-old swimmer, from Brisbane, is the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games. She draws level with Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.