Decorated American swimmer Caeleb Dressel broke down in tears on Friday at the Summer Games in Paris as he missed chances to defend two of his Olympic titles from three years ago in Tokyo.
Shortly after a sixth-place showing in the 50-meter freestyle, he failed to reach the final in the 100 butterfly.
“Obviously it’s not my best work,” Dressel said. “I had a lot of fun though, I can honestly say that. It hasn’t been my best week, I don’t think I need to shy away from that, but the racing’s been really fun here.”
Bouncing along moments before his freestyle race, Dressel made his way onto the pool deck when his name was introduced looking confident as ever. He raised his arms and side-shuffled to reach his spot in Lane 2.
While it seems baffling to water a swimming pool, the safety mechanism is required for all Olympic diving events.
Dressel set Olympic records while winning both the 50 free and 100 fly — the latter also a world record — among his five golds at the Tokyo Games, but touched the wall in 21.61 for sixth in the free Thursday. His fly semifinal was a shocking 13th-fastest.
The 27-year-old Dressel has been cheered on by wife Meghan and their five-month-old son, August, sporting oversized protective headphones in the deafening noise of La Defense Arena.
The baby did get to witness Dad bring home one gold medal. Dressel anchored the winning 4×100-meter freestyle foursome as the Americans beat out the rival Australians and Chinese on Saturday night in Day 1 of Olympic swimming competition.
That marked his eighth career gold. In Tokyo, he also won the 100 free and 4×100 medley relay after capturing golds in the two relays at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, too.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.