Los Angeles (AFP) – Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Caeleb Dressel launched his 2024 campaign aimed at the Paris Olympics with a 100m butterfly victory at the Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Illinois, on Thursday.
Dressel, the world record-holder in the event, is racing this week for the first time this year after withdrawing from the Pro Swim stop in Knoxville in January to prepare for for the birth of his son last month.
Third at the turn behind top qualifier Santo Condorelli of Italy, Dressel surged home to win in 51.27sec, with Dare Rose second in 51.77.
Zach Harting was third as Condorelli faded to fourth.
Dressel, 27, hadn’t competed since early December at the US Open, where his 100m fly victory was his first race win since the 2022 World Championships — where he cut short his campaign before stepping away from the sport for several months.
He missed the 2023 World Championships, but with USA Swimming’s Olympic trials 100 days away, Dressel looks on course to challenge for more Olympic gold in Paris.
Simone Manuel, who shared 100m freestyle gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics but has also been working her way back after a break from the sport, won the 200m freestyle in 1min 57.80sec — just one one-hundredth of a second in front of Brazil’s Maria Fernanda Costa.
Manuel, whose buildup to the Tokyo Olympics was hindered by overtraining syndrome, was more than a second faster than her performance at the Knoxville Pro Swim, holding off a furious last-lap charge from Costa.
American teenager Claire Weinstein was third — a day after winning the 800m free.
World record-holder Lilly King cruised to victory in the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:06.68 — more than two seconds in front of Andrea Podmanikova.
Iceland’s Anton McKee, gearing up for a fourth Olympics, won the men’s 100m breaststroke in 1:00.48.
© 2024 AFP
