Tokyo, Japan - Team USA got back on the medal stand on Thursday when a pair of their men finished first in individual races of both the 100 and 800-meter freestyle finals.

Bobby Finke (21) went for gold first as he swam to victory in the 800-meter freestyle.

He finished with a winning time of 7 minutes, and 41.87 seconds, a personal best for him.

A medal was out of reach for much of the race. Coming off the starting blocks, he was trailing in fourth coming into the final lap, but then he found an extra gear to close out the race for first place.

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Italian swimmer Paltrinieri finished in second at 7:42.11, while Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine came in third at 7:42.33 to take the bronze.

The 100-meter freestyle was won by Olympic veteran Caeleb Dressel – his first individual gold medal. He had won three previous golds as part of the US relay teams both in Rio and currently in Tokyo.

Dressel set an Olympic record as he finished at 47.02 seconds, leading the entire time he was in the water.

"I wasn't worried about anything," Dressel said in his post-race comments to NBC Sports. "During the race there's only so much you can do … I stuck to my race plan so if it got me first, OK, if it got me second, OK."

He was able to hold off defending Olympic champion Aussie Kyle Chalmers, who finished for silver at 47.08, and Kliment Kolesnikov of the Russian Olympic Committee came in third at 47.44.

Women’s swimming superstar Katie Ledecky was back in the water as part of the Women’s relay team as they tried for gold in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

They were up against some familiar foes as both Australia, who had their own star Ariarne Titmus in the water, and China were also contending for the top spot.

Ledecky was in the role of the anchor and dove into the water when the US was steady in third place, behind both China and the Aussies. She was able to gain on Australia but couldn’t help her fellow Americans get past the Chinese, finishing the race in second with a time of 7 minutes and 40.73 seconds.

The Chinese claimed gold with a winning time of 7 minutes and 40.33 seconds, while the Aussies had to settle for bronze at 7 minutes, and 41.29 seconds.

Once again, Ledecky and the Americans have come up short in another race they were heavy favorites to win.

China also made history, finishing the race in world record time while both the US and Australia also finished faster than the previous mark of 7:41.50.