Caeleb Dressel is changing training bases after all.
The nine-time Olympic gold medalist is joining Sporting Jax Aquatic Club, based out of Jacksonville, and realigning with the team’s head coach, Steve Jungbluth, who he previously worked with at the University of Florida.
Dressel’s move, which the club recently announced to Sporting Jax Aquatic Club families, comes after there was speculation of a potential move when he was seen training at Aquatic Sports Performance in California last week. He then put up a cryptic Instagram post acknowledging his time as a Florida Gator, fuelling more speculation that he was moving on from his longtime training base in Gainesville.
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However, in an Instagram Story earlier this week, he said he was “not moving or retiring.”
Jungbluth was hired at the University of Florida in 2010 and worked there for a dozen years before the two parted ways in October 2022.
During that stint, Dressel joined the Gators as a freshman during the 2014-15 NCAA season and went on to have a historic collegiate career while working with Jungbluth, who was Florida’s sprint coach during his first eight years with the program (through 2018).
After winning the NCAA title in the men’s 50 freestyle as a freshman in 2015, Dressel won the 50 and 100 free as a sophomore, and then swept the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018. His historic senior year in 2018 included setting new NCAA, American and U.S. Open Records in the 50 free (17.63), 100 free (39.90) and 100 fly (42.80), with the 50 and 100 fly swims still standing as the fastest in history (and the 100 free is still the American Record).
After Dressel’s collegiate career concluded, University of Florida head coach Gregg Troy retired from college coaching and shifted into working as a High Performance Coach at Gator Swim Club, working with Dressel and other pros in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Dressel, who won two Olympic relay gold medals in 2016 and followed up with seven world titles in 2017, had a dominant run working under Troy in his first few years out of college, winning six gold and two silver medals at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju and then claiming six gold medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
A few months after that Olympic success, in November 2021, Dressel announced he was moving on from Troy and returning to the University of Florida to train under Anthony Nesty, who took over as Gator head coach when Troy retired.
In 2022, Dressel won World Championship gold medals in the men’s 50 fly and 4×100 free relay before leaving the competition early for what he later revealed to be mental health reasons.
Dressel then took a lengthy break away from the pool, resurfacing in May 2023 at the Atlanta Classic, and then he competed at the U.S. National Championships later that summer by missed out on making the World Championship team.
In 2024, Dressel successfully made his third straight U.S. Olympic team, winning the men’s 50 free (21.41) and 100 fly (50.19) at the 2024 Olympic Trials while also bagging a spot on the 4×100 free relay after taking 3rd in the 100 free (47.53), with all of those swims marking his fastest since 2022.
At the Paris Olympics, Dressel placed 6th in the 50 free and 13th in the 100 fly individually, but added to his Olympic medal haul with a pair of golds in the men’s 4×100 free and the mixed 4×100 medley, along with a silver in the men’s 4×100 medley.
He’s only raced a handful of times since those Games, opting not to vie for a spot on the 2025 U.S. World Championship team and forgoing U.S. Nationals in early June. He did, however, race at the U.S. Summer Championships in early August, placing 2nd in the 50 fly (23.28) and 3rd in the 50 free (21.94). His swim in the 50 fly narrowly missed out on earning him a spot on the 2026 Pan Pacific Championship roster.
Now, the 29-year-old heads to Sporting Jax Aquatic Club, where Jungbluth is the Director of Competitive Swimming. The club has four locations in the Jacksonville area. Jacksonville is about a 75-minute drive away from Gainesville.
Blah, blah, blah
He has a gym with all the weights at his farm in Micanopy and he already has the base built, so all he really needs is a few days a week of water time, and he doesn’t even have to go all the way into Jax. He can take the 301 to the 228 and Steve can meet him at the Cecil Aquatics Center from Micanopy in an hour without ever really getting into town. Some commutes just across Jacksonville (the largest city in land area in the lower 48 states) take longer than that.
This pretty much cements the move into the 50s.
Dressel not Cecil
“I look at other animals on videos; penguins, and seals, and sharks, and whatnot. It’s almost as if [Dressel] is starting to push and escape the limitations that we have as humans in the water.” -Jungbluth, 2018
Personally, I’m stoked for them to run it back.
What I think will be really interesting will be running it back fully outside of the bounds of the traditional high volume environment.
Way too much reading into this. Dressel’s just announcing he’s getting braces again because he forgot to wear his retainer.
he has veneers now so no need
Why does anyone give 2 $hit$ where he trains?
Caleb is a grown man, professional athlete, champion. Let him do his thing and enjoy the ride. Some commenters are just a$$hole$.
Did anyone need to care where Russell Wilson is QB? No, but the sporting public does
Do they? Maybe somewhere on the list between who’s QB of the Toronto Argonauts and where’s Waldo
To be fair, he brought this on himself in this instance
Everyone’s freaking out: ‘How’s Dressel gonna handle that commute?!’ Come on. He’s that kind of athlete – coaches go to him. Do you really think he’s going to drive 2 hours (4 round-trip) and sacrifice prime family time – the thing he cares about most? Odds are, there’s water between Point A and Point B.
All the waters between point A and B have alligators in it (the animal, not UF swimmers). I am sure they have that figured out.
and they say there is cancel culture in USA, just like coach can whitewash himself with few years in the lower levels
Reading the comments and wow. Dressel really went from being everyone’s favorite to the most hated.
He said it a long time ago, being miserable made him great.The constant chase for perfection despite achieving such great things in the pool.
He never had the balance between pool and life outside, maybe he can finally be really fast and happy at the same time with this move. Time will tell.
I don’t take the comments as actual hate, it’s just a lot of frustration due to Dressel just never being honest. Fans don’t expect perfection but do look for openness from their hero’s. Look back on any pro athlete in other sports who handled themselves in a similar manner, they typically burn their fans patience because fans want accessibility. It’s just a human characteristic of wanting to relate to another human that they admire.
Yeah.
I don’t get it why he can’t just be straight talking instead of creating unnecessary drama.
He should learn from swimmers like Regan Smith, Kaylee McKeown, Kyle Chalmers.
I always thought Chalmers is a bit of a drama queen 😅
Oh absolutely!
Cause he is a few years out of being Joe Exotic