The United States (US) swimmer Caeleb Dressel nearly beat out Australia’s Kyle Chalmers to claim his first-ever individual Olympic gold medal.

Caeleb Dressel set an Olympic record in the blazing fast two-lap race, with a time of 47.02 seconds. In the end, he smiled and raised both hands in the air, taking in the applause of his teammates at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.

Dressel won in 47.02 seconds beating Aussie Kyle Chalmers by .06 of a second. Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov took bronze in 47.44 seconds.

OLYMPIC RECORD for Caeleb Dressel!

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HE DID IT! #TokyoOlympics x @TeamUSA

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After the spectacular victory, he said, “Just trying to take at that moment. I’m not going to relive the 2020 100 free finals ever again so I want to take that in as much as I can.”

“I thought I executed my race plan perfectly. Couldn’t change anything. That’s how I felt in that moment so I executed so I’m happy,” he added.

Dressel, 24, has become one of the most dominant swimmers in the world since he made his Olympic debut as a college student five years ago.

He is favoured to win the 50 free and 100 flies here after swimming the fastest times in the world this year during the Olympic Trials in June.