U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel broke down in tears after he failed to defend his Olympic gold medals Friday in the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle events.
Dressel —who has 8 gold Olympic medals— was favored to clinch the top spot on the podium at the Paris Games after nabbing gold in both events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He made it to the Paris Olympic finals in the 50-meter freestyle but placed sixth in the race with a time of 21.61 seconds, more than 35 seconds behind Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, who took gold.
Less than an hour later he got knocked out in the semi-finals of the men’s 100-meter butterfly. Dressel came in fifth with a time of 51.57 seconds, more than a minute behind France’s Maxime Grousset’s first-place finish of 50.41.
That is when photographers captured the 27-year-old Florida resident crying, perhaps overcome by the disappointment elite athletes often feel when they don’t perform their best under extreme pressure.
Dressel did win a gold medal in Paris in the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay with Team USA – the county’s first in this year’s Games– on Saturday.
Dressel nabbed a gold medal in 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a world-record time of 49:45 seconds in the men’s 100-meter butterfly, and set an Olympic record in the men’s 50-meter freestyle of 21.07.