Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky highlighted another strong night for Team USA in swimming, despite their mixed 4x100m medley relay team finishing off the podium in the last race of the session. Here are all the results from the penultimate night of swimming at the Tokyo Olympics:
Dressel wins gold and breaks his own world record
In the first of Dressel's three Olympic swims on Friday, he won gold in the 100m butterfly with a time of 49.45 seconds, improving on his own world record. Meanwhile, Kristof Milak of Hungary took silver and Noe Ponti of Switzerland took bronze.
Dressel later finished first in his semifinal of the 50m freestyle to advance to tomorrow night's final, where he could pick up a fourth medal in these Games to add to his golds. He also anchored the mixed relay team in freestyle but couldn't make up an eight-second deficit.
Ledecky wins record-breaking sixth gold
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Ledecky won the 800m for the third straight time, giving her six individual gold medals in her career, the most of any female swimmer. She had been tied with Hungarian great Krisztina Egerszegi.
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Ariarne Titmus of Australia, who finished ahead of Ledecky in both the 200m (silver to Ledecky's fifth) and 400m (gold to Ledecky's silver), finished second in the 800. Simona Quadarella of Italy took bronze.
Ledecky has 10 medals total but could add to her collection in the future.
“That was not my last swim," she said after the race, in regard to further Olympics. "I’m at least going to '24, maybe to '28, we’ll see. I just knew it was my last swim here.”
Americans don't medal in women's 200m backstroke or mixed relay
In the women's 200 backstroke, Australia's Kaylee McKeown won the gold medal in 2:04.68 to sweep the women's backstroke events in Tokyo. Canada's Kylie Masse took the silver, while Emily Seebohm, another Australian, took the bronze.
The United States' Rhyan White and Phoebe Bacon placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Fellow American Regan Smith is the world record holder in the event but was bested by Bacon and White in an electric race at the U.S. Olympic Trials; White’s winning time in June, 2:05.73, was faster than the gold-medal-winning time in the 2016 Olympics.
Great Britain won gold, while China took silver and Australia took bronze in the inaugural mixed 4x100m medley relay.
The Americans went with a lineup of Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Lydia Jacoby (breaststroke), Torri Huske (butterfly) and Dressel (freestyle). Although Murphy gave the U.S. a big lead in the first leg, the Americans fell behind as the race went on. Jacoby swam admirably despite her now-famous pink goggles falling off her face.
The British and Australians both opted to have women swim the two middle legs, while China was one of a few teams to end with the women on the last two legs.
In the prelims, the U.S. put up Rhyan White for the backstroke, Andrew Smith for the butterfly, Tom Shields for the breaststroke and Abbey Weitzel for the freestyle.
Weitzeil advances, Manuel doesn't in 50m freestyle
Simone Manuel placed 11th in the 50m freestyle semifinals, bringing an end to her Tokyo Olympics. She anchored the women's 4x100m freestyle relay that won bronze earlier in the week, a remarkable recovery after she suffered from overtraining syndrome earlier this year and failed to qualify in the 100m freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
Abbey Weitzeil finished fourth in the 50m semifinals and advances to the final on Saturday night. She will be going for her second Tokyo medal after swimming the second leg of the bronze-medal-winning 4x100m freestyle relay.
