Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky shine in major night for U.S. swimmers
Swimmers Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky shined Friday night in a major victory for Team USA, with both athletes making history and winning gold.
Ledecky became the first woman to win three consecutive Olympic titles in the 800-meter freestyle, with a time of 8:12.57. Ledecky now holds the top 24 times in history in the event, according to NBC's Olympics page. In total, she's won 10 Olympic medals — seven gold and three silver — while competing in London, Rio and Tokyo.
And it doesn't stop there. Swimmer Caeleb Dressel won his third gold medal at the 2020 Games in the men's 100-meter butterfly — and set a new world record — with a time of 49.45.
This is the third record Dressel has broken at the Games: Earlier this week, he broke the Olympic records for the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly.
"I wasn't worried about anything," Dressel said after the freestyle win. "During the race there's only so much you can do. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. I stuck to my race plan so if it got me first, OK, if it got me second, OK."
In total, this is the Florida native's fifth gold medal. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, he won the 4x100-meter freestyle and the 4x100-meter medley.
