Much has been made of swimmer Michael Phelps's triumphant return to Olympic competition at the Rio Games, but it was 19-year-old FACES IN THE CROWD alum Caeleb Dressel (Jan. 14, 2013), making his Olympic debut, who kicked off the gold-medal-winning 4 × 100-meter freestyle relay that gave Phelps his record 19th Olympic gold on Sunday. Dressel led off with a personal-best 48.10 seconds and Phelps swam the next leg to give the U.S. a lead it never surrendered in defeating defending champion France by .61 of a second. Dressel, a junior at Florida who set all-time records in the 50- and 100-yard free at the 2016 NCAA championships, let his emotion show on the podium. "I tried to tell myself I wasn't going to cry. I was too tired to cry. But as soon as I heard that national anthem play, the tears rolled down my face," he told USA Today. "I just couldn't hold back."
