Caeleb Dressel And Ben Kennedy Release Debut Podcast

The Ben and Caeleb Show

• Caeleb Dressel SwimSwam Bio
• Ben Kennedy UF Bio
• The Ben and Caeleb Show: Episode 1

Between a heavy training schedule and various ISL meets, Caeleb Dressel sat down with his former University of Florida teammate, and current best friend, Ben Kennedy to film a Q&A style podcast. Dressel, an elite professional athlete and Kennedy, a current law student opened up and gave some candid responses to a couple topics ranging from time management, to artificial intelligence.

Among the topics discussed were how Dressel managed all of his swimming with his school work in high school and college.

Dressel’s tips

• Make a checklist of what you need to accomplish in a day
• Set reminders
• Journal every night to record thoughts, conversations, how swim practice went, etc.
• Focus on the present; don’t worry about the future
• Don’t pull all-nighters
• Make your bed every morning
• Read at least 10 pages of a good book every day
• Pick up one piece of trash every day

The two also discussed what has happened to Dressel’s relationships with non-swimmers and Kennedy’s relationships with non-law students in their current career paths.

The two also discussed “talent’ versus hard work, Dressel’s relationship with Gregg Troy, and tell several anecdotes about their swimming.

Dressel recalled that when entering his senior year in college, there was a big expectation of him to break the 18 second mark in the SCY 50 free. Despite many people saying that he would be the first person to swim a 17.9, he believed that he had it in him to swim a 17.6.

Dressel went on to tell a story about a time that he vocalized his frustration with a former teammate who repeatedly showed up late for practice one week. He refers to the teammate as “Santy” and we believe that he is referring to Santiago Corredor, who Dressel swam with at UF. “If you were here on time, you would have heard the coach say the warmup” he said, clearly having no time for those who consistently show up late.

Dressel contrasted this mindset by explaining that if someone is clearly having a bad day or a bad practice, he does not see value in chastising them.

He then went on to share a bit of wisdom that fellow Olympian Katie Meili imparted to him: the days you are hurting, on the worst day or worst practice, try to find just one thing to work on, be it turns, breakouts, or any small thing and make that your focus.

They also discussed their opinions on the new NCAA regulations allowing athletes to get paid for the use of their likeness, to which Dressel said “I don’t know enough about it, I really don’t”

After briefly hypothesizing about the trials, tribulations and benefits of allowing NCAA athletes to make money, the conversation switched from swimming to video games. Dressel noted that this change would likely mean a return of the NCAA football video game that he once adored. The response ended with a ranking of his top 3 favorite video games from when he was aged 10-12.

1. NCAA Football
2. Blitz (2001)
3. Super Smash Bros

The talk wasn’t all about swimming, though. Kennedy discussed his experiences and gave some advice about law school, and the two took a dive into some heavy topics like artificial intelligence, and finding purpose.

In signing off, Dressel said that he hopes that he hopes the viewers enjoyed it and that it helps viewers to become better people.