After Caeleb Dressel, one of the veterans expected to dominate the World Swimming Championships, quit the competition on June 22, two teenagers, 17-year-old David Popovici and Summer McIntosh, 15, leapt to the top step of the podium.
Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medallist, had “withdrawn for medical reasons. For his long-term health,” Lindsay Mintenko, the Swimming Managing Director for the USA team, told media at the start of the evening session.
“He’s just not fit to compete right now.”