Tokyo (AFP)
The American Caeleb Dressel won his third gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday by winning the 100m butterfly, with a new world record, ahead of the Hungarian Kristof Milak and the Swiss Noé Ponti.
Double world champion, the 24-year-old Floridian won in 49 sec 45, improving his own 2019 record (49.50), resisting the return of Milak (49.68), while Ponti completed the podium (50.74) more than 'a second.
As usual, Dressel took control thanks to his unparalleled flow, turning in the lead already 65 / 100th ahead of Milak, who had crushed the final of the 200m butterfly.
Only titled in the relay at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio (4x100m and 4x100m medley) and 6th in the 100m, the American has in the meantime become a monster of the sprint, accumulating 13 world champion titles since 2017.
After throwing the American 4x100m to the gold on Monday, he savored his first individual consecration in the 100m freestyle, the queen race of swimming, on Thursday, beating Australia's Kyle Chalmers after the fastest final in history games.
And this title only starts its morning, since it must dive back 45 minutes later in the semi-finals of the 50 m freestyle, after having signed Friday evening the best time of the series, in 21 sec 32.
Finally, he will start at 11:43 local time for the final of the 4x100 mixed medley, an event which made its appearance at the Games and had been dominated in the series by the British, while Dressel was spared.
Noé Ponti, third, completes the harvest of the Swiss after bronze the day before the Genevan Jérémy Desplanches over 200 m medley, the first two Swiss medals in swimming since Etienne Dagon, third in the 200 m breaststroke at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
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