Caleb Dressel won the 100m butterfly at the Toyota U.S. Open, marking his first win in 17 months since returning to the sport after several months off last year.
Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, ran a time of 51.31 seconds in Greensboro, North Carolina, ranking fifth among Americans for this year’s best time. His best time so far since his return was 51.66 seconds, which was a tie for fifth at the summer national championships.
Dressel, who set the world record at the Tokyo Games with a time of 49.45 seconds, told Peacock, “It’s always exciting to see fast times.” “We’re in a good spot. … I think we were probably a little faster than we expected at this point in the season.”
Mr. Dressel defeated 18-year-old Canadian Ilya Khan by a margin of 1:100. World silver medalist Josh Liend (Canada) took third place. Shine Casas won the B final with her fastest overall time of the night, 51.03 seconds.
US Open: complete results
Dressel’s last race win before Friday was the 50-meter fly title at the June 2022 World Championships.
He then missed those worlds for unspecified medical reasons and took at least two months off from swimming (excluding swimming with manatees). He returned to training in Gainesville over the winter and was at full practice in May.
“In the simplest terms, my body was keeping score,” he said on July 1, explaining why he took the day off. “I’ve been pushing through a lot of things, but everything just boiled down to me, so I didn’t really have a choice. I was proud of being able to push things down, push them aside, and get through it. . It worked for a very long time in my career… until I couldn’t do it anymore.”
On Thursday, Dressel tied for fourth overall in the 50-meter freestyle and won the B final in 21.99 seconds. Dressel’s best time in 2023 heading into the U.S. Open was 22.57 seconds.
Dressel will compete in the 100m free on the final day of the U.S. Open on Saturday. The finals will be held at 6pm ET on USASwimming.org and USA Swimming Network.
Also on Friday, Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Hoey of Hong Kong won the 200m free in 1:54.20, beating Katie Ledecky by 2.09 seconds. About 25 minutes later, Haughey defeated Olympic gold medalist Lydia Jacoby in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Ledecky, the 2016 Olympic champion, has removed the 200-meter free from her world championship program for the past two years, but still swims in relays.
Olympic gold medalist Chase Kalish won the 400-meter individual medley in 4:10.42. Kalish, 29, edged out Carson Foster (3.01 minutes) and Jay Litherland (4.08 minutes), the top three remaining in the Tokyo Olympic Trials. Foster, the world silver medalist the past two years, continues to hold the American record this year with a time of 4:06.56.
In the women’s 400m IM, world champion and world record holder Summer McIntosh (Canada) won by 7.94 seconds in a time of 4:29.96. The 17-year-old McIntosh’s world record in April was 4 minutes 25.87 seconds.
American record holder Tori Husk won the women’s 100-meter fly in 56.21 seconds, edging out Olympic teammate Claire Curzan by 55-hundredths of a second. Hasuke’s best time (56.18 seconds) ranks him second in the world in 2023, behind the only world champion, China’s Zhang Yufei (55.86 seconds).