PARIS — Caeleb Dressel stood in the mixed zone at La Défense Arena rehashing the carnage of his Friday night with the media. While doing so, he was in the unprecedented and unwanted position of peeking at a TV monitor showing the second semifinal of the 100-meter butterfly, wondering whether he was going to be bumped out of the eight-man final.
In better times, Dressel didn’t have to scoreboard watch to know if he’d made a final. He’d never missed one in an individual Olympic event before, so the premise of leaving the pool with any doubt was a new and helpless experience.
