Tokyo (AFP)

The American Caeleb Dressel won Thursday the queen race of swimming at the Tokyo Olympics, the 100m freestyle, in 47 sec 02 / 100th, ahead of the Australian Kyle Chalmers (47.08) and the Russian Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44).

For his first Games, Maxime Grousset, 22 years old and water line number 8, took fourth place (47.72), thus failing to become the first French medalist on the round trip since the coronation of Alain Bernard in 2008 .

Sixth in the distance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Dressel took control of the sprint planet the following year, accumulating thirteen world crowns and becoming the fastest swimmer in Gwangju history at the 2019 Worlds in Gwangju. 100 m out of wetsuit (46.96).

Titled from his first dive on Sunday with the 4x100m, the 24-year-old Floridian is still aiming for four additional gold medals in the 100m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 4x100m medley and 4x100m mixed medley.

"I wasn't worried about anything. During the race you can't do much, what must happen will happen. So I stick to my plan," explained the mixed zone champion, savoring his first individual gold , "very different" from his two relay titles in Rio and third in Japan.

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Rather slender for a sprinter but propelled by powerful and explosive legs, Dressel often came out of the water in the lead after a flash flow, veering in front of Kolesnikov and Chalmers.

But on the return, the Australian, Olympic champion in the 100 m in 2016, offered a demonstration of his taste for the "dog fight" of the last meters, his brain clouded by the effort and the eddies, without managing to tear victory on the sidelines.

"It's so great to swim against Kyle, every time we do really well. It's really exciting to watch us, Kyle and I, fight side by side," commented the American, who stayed on for a long time. the water line to savor his coronation.

Chalmers' money rewards his hard work to extricate himself from a complicated Olympiad, with three heart operations to treat an arrhythmia, a first return in 2019 to become vice-world champion (47.08), then an operation at the 'shoulder at the end of 2020.

The Russian Kliment Kolesnikov, 21, under a neutral banner because of the doping sanctions affecting his country, swam a little slower (47.44) than the new European record set in the semi-finals (47.11), nevertheless adding this medal bronze to silver won on Tuesday in the 100m backstroke.

The young Muscovite, wearing a pink cap so that his grandmother will recognize him on TV, retains a margin all the more impressive as he swam very little the crawl for three years, before relaunching the year last in the footsteps of his illustrious compatriot, the quadruple Olympic champion Alexander Popov.

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Sensation of the beginning of the summer, when he had then set the best time of the year (47.30) at the European Junior Championships, the 16-year-old Romanian youngster David Popovici, recognizable by his still slender silhouette, did not took only 7th place (48.04).

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