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Why Team USA’s first gold medal of 2024 Olympics was a full-circle one for Caeleb Dressel

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PARIS — A Caeleb Dressel-anchored American relay roared to Team USA’s first gold medal of the 2024 Olympics with dominant swims, flexed muscles, tears and a full-circle moment.

Full-circle because this is where Dressel’s Olympic journey began in 2016, as a youngster on a star-studded 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

And because, eight years and eight gold medals later, when he stepped up to a podium here at Paris La Défense Arena on Saturday, he looked to his right and saw three youngsters, each in their first Olympic final, each with emotion welling in their soul.