Dressel taking aim at Phelps’ standard
Florida student claims 3 golds in one night on way to total haul of 6
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Caeleb Dressel knows the comparisons are coming.
After pulling off an unprecedented Triple Crown at swimming’s world championships, it is time to take on the legacy of Michael Phelps.
Dressel, 20, established himself as America’s newest star of the pool Saturday, becoming the first swimmer to win three gold medals on a single night at the worlds or the Olympics.
Not even Phelps managed such a feat.
“The comparisons are probably inevitable,” Dressel said. “But I’m not the same person as Michael.”
Yet it was downright Phelps-like the way he pulled off a remarkable night of swimming at Duna Arena. Dressel raced three times over the course of about two hours — and won every time. Not to mention, he had to find time to warm down and get to three medal ceremonies.
“I think I only had to run twice,” Dressel said with a smile.
Virtual lock for seventh
The University of Florida student — yep, he has an algebra exam coming up Monday he will take online — has won six gold medals in Budapest.
That gives him a shot at moving into more rarefied territory: Phelps is the only swimmer to win seven golds at a world championships, which he did at Melbourne in 2007 as a prelude to his record eight golds the following year at the Beijing Olympics.
Dressel will be a virtual lock to win his seventh when he competes on the 400 medley relay Sunday — the final event of the championships.
Again, those comparisons to Phelps.
“It’s a tough question,” Dressel said. “I don’t know if I welcome them. But I know they’re going to come. I don’t think it puts any pressure on me.” Phelps was impressed. He texted his congratulations shortly after Dressel led off a world-record performance in the 400-meter mixed freestyle relay, capping a night that included victories in the 50 free and the 100 butterfly.
Dressel started the night with a furious dash from one end of the pool to the other, adding the 50 free world title to the 100 free he had.
He came back about 30 minutes later to nearly break Phelps’ world record in the 100 fly, posting a time of 49.86 seconds that was just four-hundredths off the mark set in 2009 at the rubber suit-aided championships in Rome.
The final relay was merely a coronation, with the Americans romping to gold in 3 minutes, 19.60 seconds — eclipsing by nearly 3½ seconds the mark they set two years ago at worlds.
He even managed to overshadow Katie Ledecky, who won her fifth gold medal of the meet by cruising to victory in the 800 free. Yet Budapest will be remembered as bit of a disappointment for the star of the 2016 Summer Games, who settled for silver in the 200 free and did not come close to breaking any of her personal bests.
Ledecky won in 8:12.68, which was nearly eight seconds off her world record at Rio de Janeiro.
In the women’s 200 backstroke, Emily Seebohm of Australia shrugged off the roaring Hungarian crowd to take gold over home-country favorite Katinka Hosszu.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was another standout, bouncing back from a disappointing loss the previous night to win gold in the 50 fly and set a world record in the semifinals of 50 free. Her time of 23.67 broke the mark of 23.73, set in 2009 by Britta Steffen. Sugar Land’s Simone Manuel joined Sjostrom in Sunday’s final after finishing third (24.12) in the semis.
It was Sjostrom’s second world record of the meet. She established a standard in the 100 free while swimming the leadoff leg of the 400 free relay.
Breakout performer
But even the Swedish star took note of Dressel.
“I don’t even know if he went to the Olympics last year,” she said. “He took a really big step this year. It’s really impressive, really cool to see.”
Indeed, Dressel has emerged as the breakout performer of these championships, with a bit of help from the relatively new mixed relays. Two of his golds came in events that feature men and women on the same team, races in which Phelps never competed in at worlds.
“It’s crazy,” Dressel said. “But I had mixed relays helping me out, so it’s a bit different.” Yet no less impressive. Dressel led off the mixed free relay with blistering time of 47.22 for the first 100, and his three teammates — Nathan Adrian, Mallory Comerford and Manuel — took it from there.