Caeleb Dressel wins gold in 50 free

TOKYO — Caeleb Dressel dashed through the water on Sunday to a gold-medal sweep of his three individual events at these Olympics.

Three days after winning the first individual gold medal of his Olympic career in the 100-meter freestyle, and one day after setting a world record in the 100-meter butterfly, Dressel won the 50-meter free, swimming’s fastest race, in 21.07 seconds, a new Olympic record.

France’s Florent Manaudou took silver in 21.55. Brazil’s Bruno Fratus won bronze.

Michael Andrew, the 22-year-old American who faded in his best event, the 200-meter individual medley, on Friday, finished fourth, 0.03 seconds off the podium.

Dressel will close his Olympic program in the men’s 4x100 medley relay a little over an hour after touching the wall in the 50 free. And then, at last, his grueling but wildly successful back-heavy Olympics will end. He’ll leave Tokyo as the most successful American swimmer over the past nine days, with at least four golds and perhaps a fifth.

It won’t quite be Phelpsian. But it’ll be pretty darn close.

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