USA swimmer Caeleb Dressel breaks down in tears following nightmare Paris Olympics after flopping in solo events

US swimmer Caeleb Dressel broke down in tears after his Paris Olympics nightmare on Friday.

The Florida-born Team USA star failed to defend individual Olympic titles in the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly events.

NBC

AFP

Rex

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy took gold in the 50-meter freestyle final, clocking in at 21.25 to pick up his country’s first-ever medal in the event.

Team GB ‘s Benjamin Proud (21.30) finished second ahead of France’s Florent Manaudou (21.56) — while Dressel, 27, came in sixth with a time of 21.61.

The US swimming legend suffered another spectacular defeat about 30 minutes later.

He failed to reach the final in the 100-meter butterfly with the Paris Olympics continuing to be unlucky for Team USA swimmers .

Cameras spotted Dressel sobbing after failing to qualify for the final.

The defeat meant his all-time medal tally stayed at eight — all of them gold.

And fans couldn’t help but notice it’s been all-or-nothing for the US star in his Olympic career.

“Caeleb Dressel is allergic to anything that is not gold,” one posted on X.

“Caeleb Dressel still has never won an Olympic medal other than gold,” another added.

“I respect that Caeleb Dressel’s races are basically gold or GTFO,” a third said.

“At least Dressel can say he has only gotten gold at the Olympics,” one wrote.

Dressel might have used up his energy resources earlier in the day.

Before the two crucial afternoon events, he swam in preliminary races for the mixed 4x100m medley relay as well as the 100-meter butterfly.

The American did taste Olympic glory in Paris, though.

How to watch the Olympics in the US

All recommendations within this article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click on a link in this story we may earn affiliate revenue.

While you may feel very far from the 2024 Paris Olympics , you can stay up-to-date with all of the action right from the comfort of your sofa.

You can watch on:

• Peacock
• Sling
• Hulu
• Fubo

Or if you’re not able to watch, you can follow along with The Sun’s live blog for the latest updates from France.

He triumphed in the 4×100 freestyle relay together with Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, and Hunter Armstrong last week.

It came after Dressel claimed six golds at the Tokyo 2020 Games and two in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Following Dressel’s nightmare Friday, Team USA had just four golds in swimming with eight Olympic finals left.

Those came from Torri Huske in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, Katie Ledecky in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, and Kate Douglass in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke in addition to the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay.

They also boasted 11 silver and six bronze medals.

US swimmers haven’t won less than 10 Olympic golds since the 1998 Games in Seoul.