USA Team wins the first medal at Tokyo Olympics

 USA Team wins the first medal at Tokyo Olympics: Swimmer Chase Kalish wins gold in 400 IM

 Chase Kalish, a co-star of Michael Phelps who won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the men's 400 individual medleys, took the gold to give the United States their first medal at this Olympics.

His American teammate Jay Leatherland took the silver by 86 seconds over Kalish. Australian Brendon Smith won the bronze.

Calish, 27, of Bel Air, Maryland, swam the 400mm, 100m all-four-stroke, in 4:09.42.

"It means the world," Kalish said on NBC right after the race. "This is the last thing I wanted to achieve in my swimming career. It was a dream I've always remembered."

The men's 400 IM is very familiar to Americans because it is the first swimming race. Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, won it in 2004 and 2008, followed by Ryan Lochte in 2012.

American Chase Kalisz celebrates after winning the men's 400 medley final during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics at the Tokyo Aquatic Center.

Calish said Phelps, his longtime training partner at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, is like "the big brother to me I've never had before." Phelps watched the final on Sunday morning from NBC to announce a booth high above the Olympic pool.

Longtime gold medal winner in the event, Japan's Daya Seto, shockingly failed to make it out of Saturday night's qualifiers, creating a wide-open final. Kalisz qualified with the third-fastest time.