Caeleb Dressel was overcome with emotion after winning gold in the 100 freestyle with an Olympic record

Caeleb Dressel set an Olympic record against the fastest field in history.

With an explosive start off the blocks, American sprinter Caeleb Dressel jumped out to an early lead and held on tight to win gold in the men’s 100-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday morning in Japan (Wednesday night in the U.S.).

Dressel’s gold medal-winning swim of 47.02 set a new Olympic record, as he out-touched Australia’s Kyle Chalmers by just .06 seconds in what was the fastest 100 free Olympic field ever, as NBC noted. Chalmers won silver with a time of 47.08 and Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov won bronze at 47.44.

After winning his first individual medal of the Tokyo Games, Dressel was overcome with emotion as he sat on the lane marker and celebrated his victory.

And when Dressel headed over to his on-deck interview with NBC, he appeared to tear up talking about the challenges he faced with the postponed Olympics and how hard the last year was for him. He also noted how much he was hurting after that race.

And when he got to briefly talk with his family in the U.S., he broke down and didn’t hold back his tears.

This was Dressel’s second gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics after he was part of the winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay team. It’s his fourth Olympic gold medal overall after also being on the winning 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relays at the 2016 Rio Games.

But in Rio, Dressel placed sixth in the 100 free, so this is his first individual Olympic medal. He’ll also swim the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly at these Games, in addition to relays.

Here’s his family’s reaction to his gold medal-winning swim:

The world record in the men’s 100 free is held by Cesar Cielo at 46.91 from 2009, but Dressel broke Australia’s Eamon Sullivan’s 2008 Olympic record of 47.05.

[mm-video type=video id=01fbhyrmj5vq0rea71tm playlist_id=01fb9s4k51ngtccr6s player_id=01evcfkb10bw5a3nky image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fbhyrmj5vq0rea71tm/01fbhyrmj5vq0rea71tm-168dcaab44245738d42ee05a4283d98e.jpg]

[listicle id=1051685]

[listicle id=1049842]