Swimming Day 6 preview: Caeleb Dressel races 100m freestyle, Ledecky leads U.S. relay

Caeleb Dressel prepares to race the men's 100m freestyle on Day 6 at the Tokyo Olympics. (Getty Images)

Caeleb Dressel, the top star in men's swimming, has had a relatively muted roll in the proceedings in the pool thus far in Tokyo. That changes on Day 6.

Dressel will swim the most classic of Olympic races, the 100m freestyle. He is the world champion and world record holder in the event.

Recommended Videos



Elsewhere, Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus match up for the third time at the Tokyo Games, but this time they've got their entire teams behind them in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

See below for a full preview of each of the day's events.

Watch the action LIVE in primetime on NBC beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET and stream the entire session LIVE on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

Men's 800m Freestyle - Final

START LIST

The men's 800 free makes its Olympic debut.

Gregorio Paltrinieri, the defending world champion in the event, will start from lane eight after advancing as the final qualifier from the heats.

American Bobby Finke is among the medal contenders, along with Germany's Florian Wellbrock, the world champion in the 1500 free, and Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine.

Men's 200m Breaststroke - Final

START LIST

Aussie Zac Stubblety-Cook and Great Britain's James Wilby could take the 200m breaststroke down to the wire.

Lurking in lane seven, though, is world record holder Anton Chupkov of the ROC. His qualifying time of 2:08.54 was nearly two and a half seconds off his own record pace, but he is still well among the event favorites.

American Nic Fink has a podium opportunity as well.

Women's 100m Freestyle - semifinals

START LIST

Emma McKeon of Australia leads a field filled with former Olympic champions. McKeon set an Olympic record in the preliminary heats. 

Within a second of her time though, you'll find Australia's Cate Campbell, Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom, Canada's Penny Oleksiak and Denmark's Pernille Blume.

That's 17 combined Olympic medals potentially headed to a star-studded final.

Men's 200m backstroke - Semifinal

START LIST

Defending gold medalist Ryan Murphy aims for another another Olympic final, along with U.S. teammate Bryce Mefford.

Evgeniy Rylov, gold medalist in the 100 back, will look to set himself up for the backstroke double in the final.

Women's 200m butterfly - Final

START LIST

Americans Hali Flickinger and Regan Smith are both in the mix for the gold medal, though China's Zhang Yufei is surely the favorite after breaking 2:05 in the semifinal round.

2019 world champion Boglarka Kapas of Hungary is also very much in the podium picture.

Men's 100m freestyle - Final

START LIST

After ceding the stage for the first half of the Tokyo swimming competition, its time for Caeleb Dressel to have his moment.

It won't be easy though, as Dressel, the defending world champion and world record holder in the 100 free, has Russian athlete Kliment Kolesnikov to deal with.

Kolesnikov qualified with a better time out of the semifinals, though Dressel hinted after his heat that there was a much faster time waiting for the final.

Women's 200m breaststroke - Semifinal

START LIST

South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker came within .05 of the world record in the heats with a blistering time of 2:19.16. Can she lower that in the semifinal?

Americans Lilly King and Annie Lazor should comfortably advance to the final as well.

Men's 200m IM - semifinal

START LIST

How low will Michael Andrew go? The versatile short-distance racer appears to be in control of proceedings in the 200 IM.

Chase Kalisz, the 400 IM gold medalist earlier in the week, will expect to make the final along with Japan's Hagino Kosuke, the defending gold medalist.

Women's 4x200m freestyle - final

START LIST

Australia nearly broke the world record with Ariarne Titmus sitting on the bench. Throw the individual 200m freestyle gold medalist into the mix and this one should go the Aussies' way comfortably.

The United States may give them a serious run, though, with seasoned veterans Allison Schmidtt and Katie Ledecky in tow.