NA: Dressel Secures First U.S. 100 Free World Title Since 2001

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Full Competition Schedule
• Meet Info
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• Pick ’em Contest
• Event-by-Event Previews

Unlike some of the events where the U.S. men have reigned supreme, such as the backstrokes, butterfly’s and IMs, the sprint freestyle events have consistently had a wider spread of champions and medalists worldwide.

When Caeleb Dressel crushed the men’s 100 free final tonight in Budapest, lowering his own American record in 47.17, he became the first American, male or female, to win the 100m free world title since 2001.

That year marked the only time Anthony Ervin won a major international medal in the 100, as he used his blinding speed to get out ahead and managed to hold off Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband (despite a timing error that initially had the Dutchman winning).

For the American women, they haven’t won since Jenny Thompson did in 1998. However, we can’t forget about Simone Manuel‘s 2016 Olympic triumph, or for that matter Nathan Adrian‘s in 2012.

However, Dressel looks to be solidifying himself as the next great superstar in men’s freestyle sprinting. He won the title by a full seven tenths of a second, the biggest margin of victory since 1986, when American Matt Biondi (48.94) defeated Frenchman Stephan Caron (49.73) by 79-one-hundredths.

Adrian came in for silver in 47.87, marking the first 1-2 for the U.S. men since 1978.

American sprinting is certainly in good hands as Dressel continues to stake his claim as the best male sprinter in the world right now.

He now has three gold medals in Budapest, with potentially five more opportunities. He’ll swim the 50 free and 100 fly individually, though the two coincide with each other, and will definitely swim fly on the men’s medley relay after his historic 49.9 split in the mixed event.

There’s a chance he could be used on the mixed 4×100 free relay, though that would entail him doing a triple during the finals session. He also qualified to swim the men’s 4×200 prelims, but will almost definitely be left off with 50 free and 100 fly prelims occurring shortly prior.

OTHER NORTH AMERICAN DAY 5 ACTION

• Chase Kalisz  won his first World Championship title in the men’s 200 IM, giving the U.S. eight straight titles in the event.
• The U.S. women successfully defended the 4×200 free relay crown with their 4th straight title, topping China in 7:43.39.
• Kathleen Baker missed her American record set yesterday by 0.02 in the women’s 50 back, putting up the 2nd fastest U.S. performance ever to take 5th place.

ADVANCING TO FINALS TOMORROW:

• Women’s 100 Free: Simone Manuel (USA), 2nd – 52.69, Mallory Comerford (USA), 3rd – 52.85, Penny Oleksiak (CAN), 6th – 53.05.
• Men’s 200 Breast: Kevin Cordes (USA), 5th – 2:08.40, Nic Fink (USA), 8th – 2:08.80
• Women’s 200 Breast: Bethany Galat (USA), 2nd – 2:21.86, Kierra Smith (CAN), 5th – 2:23.18, Lilly King (USA), 8th – 2:23.81.
• Men’s 200 Back: Ryan Murphy (USA), 2nd – 1:54.93, Jacob Pebley (USA), 5th – 1:55.20

MEDAL TABLE

Rank	Federation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States of America	9	8	3	20
2	Canada	1	0	1	2

The Americans added three golds on day 5 to triple the next highest total of 3, which both Great Britain and China have. China has less than half their medal count of 20 with 8, sitting in 2nd place.