
PARIS — Caeleb Dressel had been there before. Exactly there. Just in a different role, at the start of a journey that came full circle Saturday.
Eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Dressel was standing on the top step of the medal podium as a member of the United States’ gold medal-winning 400-meter freestyle relay. It was his first Olympic gold, and he couldn’t keep the tears from falling. Michael Phelps, who had won approximately a thousand gold medals to that point, stood next to Dressel laughing and rubbing the 19-year-old’s head.