Caeleb Dressel may be the poster boy for the U.S. men’s swim team, but Zach Apple was the man of the moment on Monday at the Tokyo Olympics.
Apple anchored the 4X100 freestyle relay squad to victory with a blazing 46.69-second split. Only seven or so swimmers have gone that fast in the 4x100 relay, according to observers. The longstanding world record in the 100 free is 46.91 and that was accomplished with the now-banned supersuit.
The U.S. clocked 3:08.97, the third-fastest time in history, followed by Italy (3:10.11) and Australia (3:10.22).
The first three swimmers, Dressel, Blake Pieroni and Bowe Becker, were no slouches with solid legs in the 47-second range. But Apple turbocharged the gold medal effort with a swim one viewer called “absolutely insane.”
As good as it was, Australia’s Kyle Chalmers churned a 46.44 to rally Australia to bronze.
The 100-meter freestyle event is gonna be something.
Watch Apple and the Americans speed to gold right here:
And here are some of the comments from swimming fans: