University of Florida swimmer Caeleb Dressel won seven gold medals at the FINA Championships Sunday in Hungary, tying Michael Phelps’ record set in 2007.
On the final day of the seven-day championship games, the 20-year-old Team USA swimmer snagged his seventh gold medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay. Team USA took gold with a time of 3:27.91, according to FINA World Championships results.
Dressel cheered his teammates Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes and Nathan Adrian, who anchored the race.
Dressel served the third leg of the race as he swam butterfly with a time of 49.76 seconds, making him the fastest butterfly swimmer in history for the 100m event.
He looked to his teammate, Nathan Adrian, to finish off strong and expressed his gratitude to him via social media.
“Nathan’s size 15 feet leave some pretty big shoes to fill,” Dressel said in an Instagram post. “I hope to be half the leader he is one day.”
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Adrian anchored and finished the race with a time of 47-seconds, leaving Britain to seat second.
Dressel was named Male Swimmer of the Meet at the championships after becoming the first-ever participant to score three gold medals in a single night at the championships with the men’s 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.
Phelps did not attend the games, but he turned to social media to congratulate Dressel.
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Phelps became the first swimmer to win 7 gold medals at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Although Dressel is gaining momentum in the sport, surpassing Phelps’ world accomplishments would not be an easy feat. Out of the Phelps’ seven gold medal wins, five were won in individual events, compared to Dressel’s 3 individual event gold wins.
Team USA deservingly took home 38 medals – 18 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze – in the games, according to FINA results.
With impressive swims during the games, many are already wondering what Dressel will bring to the pool next summer Olympics.
"I am not sure what I expect for Tokyo 2020," Dressel told FINA. "I am focused on tomorrow and then we can think about Tokyo 2020."
