Why Caeleb Dressel tossed his first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics to a teammate in the stands
TOKYO — Caeleb Dressel swam the first leg of the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay in lightning-quick time on Monday. He gave the U.S. a lead it never relinquished, and, less than an hour later, he stepped to a podium to receive his first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics.
Then he posed for some pictures, and stepped off the podium, and easily could have sauntered into interviews, hitched a ride back to the Olympic Village, and retired for the day with gold around his neck.
Dressel, instead, found 20-year-old teammate Brooks Curry in the Tokyo Aquatics Center stands. He called Curry down to the first row. And he flipped Curry the medal.
Class. 🥇
Caeleb Dressel gave his gold medal to Brooks Curry, who swam for Dressel in the prelims. Dressel replaced Curry for the final. #TokyoOlympics x @USASwimming pic.twitter.com/u9wcbU8kHH— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2021
He did that because Curry's presence on the 4x100 relay team helped Dressel swim so fast this morning.
Curry joined Zach Apple, Bowe Becker and Blake Pieroni for preliminary heats on Sunday night. He swam a 48.84, much slower than Dressel's 47.26 some 15 hours later. But the U.S. qualified easily, and more importantly, precisely because the final was 15 hours later, Curry allowed Dressel to rest up.
The "flipped schedule" here in Tokyo — with prelims at night and finals in the morning, to appease NBC — has been problematic for some swimmers. "This is not something that we're used to," U.S. gold medalist Chase Kalisz said Sunday. "I've done it one time in my life. ... If you do everything right, as far as nutrition, getting massages on the table, getting recovery in, and eat, that leaves you with six hours of sleep, max."
Dressel, presumably, got more than six hours Sunday night.
"I had the easiest job last night out of everyone here," Dressel said Monday. "I got to watch it on TV. So I felt like [Brooks] deserved that a little more than me.“
Both of them, ultimately, will get medals. Everyone who swims a relay leg in prelims or finals receives whatever medal the final foursome earns.
But prelims-only swimmers don't participate in medal ceremonies. They aren't involved on the biggest stage. So Dressel took matters into his own hands by taking his gold medal out of them, and reeled Curry into the spotlight.
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