Caeleb Dressel brings Florida Gators first gold medal in 2016 Rio Olympics

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Image Credit: The Alligator

Leave it to a 19-year-old to make the Florida Gators golden again.

Caeleb Dressel kicked off the medal-winning ways for the Gators on Sunday night as he and the United States men’s 4×100 freestyle relay team won gold in the event finals.

Dressel, who did not participate in the preliminary heat earlier Sunday in order to preserve his strength and energy, kicked off the relay for the Americans with a split of 48.10, which was good for second at the time.

Michael Phelps (47.12) took the second leg like a bat out of hell, giving the United States a lead that would have been tough to squander considering the talent on leg three (Ryan Held, 47.73) and anchor (Nathan Adrian, 46.97) for the race.

Dressel’s gold is the first medal of any kind for Florida’s 30 Olympians in Rio De Janeiro.

The medal is Dressel’s first as a professional swimmer and comes the same year he broke the American and U.S. Open records in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles at the NCAA Championship.

Great night racing for the best country there is, sweet feeling to have that gold back on US soil #USA #iloveyoumomanddad

— Caeleb Dressel (@caelebdressel) August 8, 2016

MFW @caelebdressel wins an Olympic gold medal alongside his relay teammates UGH I AM SO HAPPY🇺🇸🐊 pic.twitter.com/9Pbwyy9Mw5

— Elizabeth Beisel ⚓ (@ebeisel34) August 8, 2016

OnlyGators.com continues to offer full live coverage of the Rio Olympics in our tracker, which includes a daily schedule, medal count and full roster of Gators in the Olympics.