Tokyo (AFP)
King of the sprint on the Olympiad and two-time reigning 100m world champion, Caeleb Dressel won Olympic consecration in the queen race at the Tokyo Games on Thursday.
Maxime Grousset, at the foot of the podium at 22, has made a date.
Never before has an Olympic 100m final been so fast: Dressel, starting off as usual, completed the round trip in 47 sec 02, his second fastest time over the distance.
Just enough to resist the formidable return of the outgoing Olympic champion, the Australian Kyle Chalmers (47.08).
In full progress and the best time in the semi-finals (47.11), the young Russian Kliment Kolesnikov (21) obtained the bronze medal (47.44).
Seeing Dressel triumph is all that makes more sense in view of the past Olympiad.
Since the summer of his explosion in 2017, the 24-year-old American has amassed thirteen world championship titles, including two in the 100m, and has become the fastest swimmer in all-round history. excluding combinations (46.96 in 2019).
The only one under 47 sec.
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However, the Floridian sprinter, crowned twice in the relay in Rio, and a third time with the men's 4x100m in the Tokyo basin, did not yet know the happiness of an Olympic coronation in individual.
- "Weight on the shoulders" -
He took the time to appreciate it, sitting for a long time on its water line, giving off an impression of fullness.
Then, on the podium, he let tears run down his face, even largely concealed under the imposing white mask of "Team USA", when the American anthem rang out.
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"I had this weight on my shoulders, to have won (Olympic gold) medals in the relay, but never in the individual", admits Dressel.
"I didn't want to admit it before but now that it's done, I can say it: it's very different," he admits.
“You can't count on anyone else. There's only you in the water, no one to get you through. It's tough, really. I'm glad I did it,” he continues. American, gaining momentum over the towers.
Dressel still has his work cut out for him: he is aiming for four more gold medals by Sunday, in the 100m butterfly - he dominated the playoffs on Thursday night in 50 sec 39 ahead of Hungarian Kristof Milak (50.62), 50 m, 4x100m men's and mixed medley.
For Chalmers, best time matched, the silver medal rewards his efforts to extricate himself from a complicated Olympiad, between three heart operations to treat an arrhythmia, a first return in 2019 to become vice-world champion in the 100 m (in 47.08 already), and a shoulder operation at the end of 2020.
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For his first Olympic final at 22, Maxime Grousset was quite up to the occasion: the Caledonian was fourth in 47 sec 72 / 100th.
- "Kid's dream" -
"It was already a kid's dream to make a final, so being in the top four ... I'm super proud of myself," he smiles.
"I still have a little bit of a push to get over it and get on the podium."
"These are the best swimmers in the world who are in front of me, and I am just behind", adds Grousset, personal record lowered by more than a second in two months and entered - like Florent Manaudou - over 50 m from Friday evening .
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Mehdy Metella climbed to the semifinals of the 100m butterfly with the tenth time (51.53).
In the women's 100 m final on Friday morning, there will be no French presence: Marie Wattel missed a hundredth, despite a personal best record improved by two tenths (53.12), to be part of the party.
In the women's 4x200m, this time neither Ariarne Titmus nor Katie Ledecky were adorned with gold, snatched by the Chinese quartet (7: 40.33, world record) ahead of the Americans and Australians.
But both will swim the 800 final on Saturday, Ledecky with the best time of the heats (8: 15.67), Titmus with the sixth.
Like the American over 1,500m the day before, her compatriot Robert Finke became the first Olympic champion in history over the 800m (7: 41.87).
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Author of dazzling progress this year, the Australian Izaac Stubblety-Cook won in the 200m breaststroke (2: 06.38), and the Chinese Zhang Yufei in the 200m butterfly (2: 03.86).
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