Caeleb Dressel finds joy in swimming again before Olympic Trials

Defending Olympic champion and World Record holder Caeleb Dressel was off his game in 2023, but that’s ancient history. In 2024, Dressel is back.

Caeleb Dressel finds joy in swimming again before Olympic Trials
Current photo via Jack Spitser/Spitser Photography

 

The internal voice that Caeleb Dressel and his therapist refer to as “the critic” It is the same voice that informed Dressel three years ago during the flight home from the Olympics in Tokyo that his five gold medal performance wasn’t good enough. The critic remarked that he ought to have swum faster.

 

It’s the voice that Dressel was unable to silence prior to withdrawing from the Budapest 2022 World Championship.

 

Over the past two years, Dressel has addressed the voice in weekly therapy sessions.

 

He admitted to NBC Sports in late April that “criticism has been coming in even this week, to be honest.” “With him, I have a much healthier relationship.”

 

At age 15, Dressel competed in his first Olympic Trials in swimming in 2012.

 

In the 2016 Olympics, he took home two gold medals for relays.

 

Then, in Tokyo, he followed Michael Phelps as the first athlete to win five gold at a single Games since 2000.

 

In the Lucas Oil Stadium of the Indianapolis Colts, Dressel will compete in his fourth Olympic Trials.

 

The nine-day competition begins on Saturday and will be broadcast live on NBC, NBCOlympics.com, and Peacock.

 

OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS: Broadcast Schedule

 

The three individual events he won in Tokyo include the 50-meter freestyle, where he currently stands third in the nation by best time, the 100-meter freestyle, where he is tied for fourth, and the 100-meter butterfly, where he is ranked first. Each event’s top two finishers qualify for the Paris squad.

 

The top six finishers in the 100-meter free will advance to the 4×100-meter free relay pool.

 

Swimming has once again brought Dressel joy after a challenging two years, his wife Meghan stated in late April.

 

Swimming used to be that, she said, but over time it changed into this extremely controlling activity that wasn’t necessarily beneficial. “To watch him now, grinning, giggling, and making jokes with the commentators during post-race interviews on the pool deck. That is all there is to it.

 

Less than a month after the Tokyo Olympics, Dressel rejoined the International Swimming League.

 

Two weeks into a three-week regular season, he pulled out, claiming afterwards that he was lost at the time.

 

He stated in April of this year that “I needed more of a break after Tokyo.” Training resumed for Dressel on December 15, 2021. This meant that the build-up to the June 2022 World Championships would be shorter than usual.

 

Even though he had the world records for the 50- and 100-meter freestyles as well as the 100-meter fly going into the meet, he sensed something wasn’t quite right from the start.

 

He is now aware of what that item was. In the April interview, Dressel talked on what he felt comfortable talking about, and he plans to talk more about that experience in 2022 in the future.

 

He replied, “We’ll just call it more mentally because if something starts mentally, it certainly starts manifesting in your body.

 

I don’t want to say physically because I wasn’t injured or anything like that.” He took home gold in the 50-meter fly and the men’s 4×100-meter free relay for the United States over the first two days of the eight-day competition at the 2022 Worlds.

 

He won his preliminary heat in the 100m free after taking the day off. Before the semifinals that evening, he withdrew.

 

“I was unable to calm the critic down,” he remarked. “I knew I had to go home after I completely lost that battle and reached a place I hadn’t been in a long time.” He compared the experience to his senior year of high school, when he took a five-month hiatus from swimming because he didn’t want the sport to define him. He entered therapy the day after his return to Florida in June 2022.

 

For the past two years, he has seen Nicole, his therapist, at least once a week. They have talked about the critic.

 

Dressel remarked, “It is a very important part of me.” “I told Nicole that I didn’t want to lose anything that provides me an advantage.

What happens if my edge is the critic?

They attempted to transform Dressel’s rapport with the critic “into a partnership instead of a dictatorship,” according to him.

 

“It’s great when I have to persevere because he (the critic) doesn’t give me a choice,” Dressel remarked. No, this is what you’re going to do. No, you are going to regulate this breathing. You intend to enter the ice bath.

 

The man standing next to you will lose to you. You’ll confidently approach the blocks and show up.

 

He gives me great advantages and, in my opinion, a decisive advantage over many others.

 

In late 2022 and early 2023, Dressel took a break from swim training for roughly eight months.

 

He drove a long way around campus to avoid viewing the pool when he was at the University of Florida.

 

“I felt ashamed,” he admitted. I didn’t know who I was at the time, so it was a really scary time in my life. I have no idea what’s happening.

Would I like to continue swimming?

He was the only camper in the woods. He traveled back roads on his motorcycle. He underwent foot surgery.

 

He and Meghan sat in silence on his porch. He was mowing his ten acres of lawn one early break day when he had an epiphany.

 

He remarked last year, “I’ll never forget the spot I was going around.” “I suddenly realized that even if I never go back to swimming, I’ll be alright. And that’s how I realized I was at least.

In winter 2023, he returned to swim practice in Gainesville.

 

He arrived to the Stephen C. O’Connell Center parking lot that first day in the dark at five o’clock in the morning. Katie Ledecky was the first swimmer he noticed. “She approaches me and gives me a hug,” Dressel remarked. “Katie has never given me an embrace.

 

I’m not sure if it was her magical hug or just the familiarity of seeing someone else on deck that made me feel like I was back at practice. Dressel increased his workouts during the previous year.

 

From meet to meet, his times got better and better. In the same events that he won, he is a candidate to join the Paris squad.

 

“My main concern was never getting back into the water.” stated Meghan. “My question was, how can I make sense of all of this and be happy as a human while also understanding how this happened in the first place?

 

With the Olympic Trials quickly approaching, Dressel stated in late April that the critic had grown “pretty lively.” “He’s attempting to make an entrance. ”

 

Alright, so are you certain that doing this in practice wasn’t a bad idea?

 

” Yes, this wasn’t what you should have done. stated Dressel. “I’m relieved he’s still around because I didn’t want Nicole to think less of me after you got rid of him.

 

However, I like him. He’s entertaining. He’s excellent. He’s amazing. He completes his work. He is a creature of nature.

 

Being a father has also brought Dressel happiness. August, Meghan’s first child, was born on February 17.

 

Dressel remarked, “It has nothing to do with the times; it is a pressure like no other having his eyes on me, but it’s a pressure that I will fully welcome, until the day I die, of wanting to show up for him and prove I am someone he can look up to.”

 

 

 

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