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Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, Bowen Becker and Zach Apple came
in with a time of 3:08.97 to finish 1.14 seconds ahead of second
placed Italy. Australia's hopes of challenging for the top prize
never really materialised as they trailed in 1.25 seconds adrift
of the champions to claim bronze. Russia faded away early to
finish seventh.
Since the 4x100m freestyle relay was introduced at the 1964
Tokyo Games, the U.S. have won a medal in the event at every
Games, including 10 golds.
The Australians had been expected to put in a strong showing but
the Americans led from the start with a fast-paced opening leg
from Dressel and did not look back as Apple showed he is now a
core member of the team with a brilliant swim in the last leg.
"We know there's a target on our backs. It is tough, but if you
make it you deserve to be up here," Dressel, who was also part
of the line-up that won the event in Rio, said.
The gold in the relay for the Americans followed Chase Kalisz's
victory in the men's 400m individual medley on Sunday.
The swimming team's poker games in the athlete's village were
raised at a press conference for the second day in row.
"It's just a nice thing that doesn't take any energy, we can sit
around and talk, play cards," Pieroni said while clarifying that
when money was involved it was "small stakes."
"It's just a relaxing thing to do."
(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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