Tokyo Olympics: Caeleb Dressel, dubbed USA’s new Michael Phelps, out to shatter Adam Peaty’s dreams

Adam Peaty will have to get the better of America’s own tattooed titan if he wants to win two more golds.

In a battle between the two big beasts of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Peaty will swim the breaststroke and Caeleb Dressel the butterfly in the mixed and men’s medley relays this weekend.

Dressel, whose tattoo sleeve includes an eagle, a bear and an alligator while Peaty’s are a lion and various Greek gods and Roman gladiators, is seen as the natural successor to greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps. 

But if that piled on the pressure, he is more than handling it here, winning Thursday’s 100metres freestyle with an Olympic record, to go with the gold he had already claimed in the 4x100m freestyle relay. 

‘He is just a freak,’ Chris Spice, the British Swimming performance director, told Sportsmail. ‘And whenever you get freaks in sport, they are always enjoyable to watch. It was just like that every time Phelps jumped in the water and it’s the same with him. He stands head and shoulders above others.’

At Rio 2016, Dressel won two relay golds alongside 23-time Olympic champion Phelps, who is here now for NBC television.

But the specialist sprinter really made his mark the following year at the World Championships, striking gold seven times before following that up two years later with six golds and two silvers.

In Tokyo, the 24-year-old is in search of six again with the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, as well as those two relays against Team GB, still to come. That would see him sit with Phelps and Mark Spitz as the only US swimmers to have won six in one Games.

Dressel may even have been looking at seven golds had the US selected him in the 4x200m freestyle, a snub Phelps criticised after Britain raced to victory.

However, that was all forgotten on Thursday when the Floridian won his first individual Olympic title by 0.06sec and was in tears as he sang the national anthem.

‘It means a lot,’ admitted Dressel. ‘I knew that weight was on my shoulders. I’d won relay medals but never individual, so it was really special.

‘It’s a lot different — you can’t rely on anyone else. It’s just you and the water, there’s no one there to bail you out.’