Dressel wins three golds in one night

Caeleb Dressel knows the comparisons are coming.

After pulling off an unprecedented triple crown at swimming’s world championships, it’s time to take on the legacy of Michael Phelps.

The 20-year-old Dressel 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 either the worlds or the Olympics.

Not even Phelps managed such an audacious feat.

“The comparisons are probably inevitable,” Dressel said. “But I’m not the same person as Michael.”

The University of Florida student has won six gold medals in Budapest.

That gives him a shot at moving into more rarified 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-meter medley relay Sunday, the final event of the championships.

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 already had. He came back about a half-hour later to nearly break Phelps’ world record in the 100 butterfly, posting a time of 49.86 that was just four-hundredths off the mark set in 2009 at the rubber suit-aided championships in Rome.

The final mixed free relay was merely a coronation, the Americans romping to gold in 3 minutes 19.60 seconds — eclipsing by nearly 3 1 ⁄ seconds 2 the mark they set two years ago at worlds.

“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Dressel said. He even managed to overshadow

Katie Ledecky, who won her fifth gold medal of the meet by cruising to victory in the 800 free.

Ledecky won in 8:12.68, which was nearly eight seconds off her world record at Rio de Janeiro.