Caeleb Dressel could make history in Paris.
The 27-year-old swimmer is considered one of the best U.S.-born swimmers since Michael Phelps. Dressel added another gold medal to his trophy case after clenching victory Saturday in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.
“Relays are a little more special to be honest,” Dressel said. “So doing it with these guys has been awesome. It takes me back to my first gold. It really doesn't get old. Really special standing on the podium with these guys watching the flag go up. I'm extremely proud of them. It made my job easy.”
Dressel, who won five gold medals at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, now owns eight career medals -- all of them gold. He's just the third athlete to ever capture at least eight Olympic medals that are all gold, joining Usain Bolt and Ray Ewry.
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And Dressel can still add to his total in Paris via the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
The swimmer is already in a class of his own. With eight gold medals to his name, Dressel is among the winningest Olympians in history.
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Only five other athletes have more gold medals than him: Michael Phelps (23), Larisa Latynina (9), Paavo Nurmi (9), Mark Spitz (9), and Carl Lewis (9).
If Dressel is able to win two more gold medals while in Paris, he'll only be surpassed by Phelps in gold medal count.
