Olympic Swimming 2021: Men's 100M Freestyle Medal Winners, Times and Results

Caeleb Dressel did it. And he did it in style.

The United States swimmer won the gold medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, setting an Olympic record (47.02) in the process. He just edged out the event's gold medalist at the Rio Games in 2016, Australian's Kyle Chalmers (47:08), who took silver.

The Russian Olympic Committee's Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44), one of the favorites heading into the event, earned bronze.

It was Dressel's second gold of the Tokyo Games, as he also stood atop the podium after the United States won the 4x100-meter freestyle relay alongside Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker and Zach Apple. It was his fourth gold overall, as he won two relay golds at the 2016 Olympics.

He was emotional after Thursday's win.

"I don't know if it's just set in yet. Right now I'm just kinda hurting," he said on the NBC broadcast after the race, between deep breaths. "But it's a really tough year. It's really hard. So to have the results show how—I mean, it really came together, so I'm happy."

Dressel swam his race, getting off to an incredibly fast start with an 0.60-second reaction time out of the blocks. His race strategy was clear: Catch me if you can.

Chalmers came close but couldn't quite catch the United States' dynamo, who joined impressive company with the win:

Dressel has a busy Olympics scheduled, with the 100-meter butterfly, mixed medley relay, 50-meter freestyle and men's medley relay yet to come. But he's already made his mark in Tokyo.