2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
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Caeleb Dressel‘s individual events at the Paris Olympic Games are over. After finishing 6th in the 50 free final at the beginning of night 7, he came up short in the 100 fly semifinal, finishing 13th overall. He is the defending champion in both events.
Dressel, who stated at U.S. Trials that he was at peace with never going a best time again, was seen smiling and congratulating his competitors following each of his races. However, after his swim in the 100 butterfly, he was seen crying on deck as the cameras rolled, a moment which has drawn criticism for being exploitative of an athlete’s emotional moment.
Still, the 8x Olympic gold medalist managed to collect himself enough to speak to reporters.
“Tough day at the office,” he quipped after it was confirmed he had finished 13th, nearly 0.5-seconds out of a finals berth in the 100 fly.
“I’m actually enjoying the moment. I’m at the Olympic Games, I won’t forget that,” said Dressel. “I’d like to be performing better, but I’m not. I trained to go faster than the times I’m going. I know that. So, yeah. It’s tough, a little heartbreaking. A little heartbreaking, for sure.”
“It was very obviously not my best work,” Dressel continued. “It hasn’t been my best week. I don’t think I need to shy away from that. But the racing has been really fun here. Walking out for the 50 and the 100 fly, it was special. I don’t want to ever forget that. I’d like to be quicker, obviously.”
Notably, Dressel swam faster times in the 50 free semifinals (21.58) and 100 fly prelims (50.83). Matching his time in the 50 would have put him in a tie with Josh Liendo for 4th, but his morning effort in the 100 fly would have been safely 7th into the final tonight.
Still, Dressel’s meet isn’t over yet. He is expected to be swapped into the 4×100 medley relay on the last night. The United States’ prelims squad of Hunter Armstrong, Charlie Swanson, Thomas Heilman, and Jack Alexy qualified in 3rd. The U.S. has never lost a 4×100 medley relay at the Olympics. The one exception is the 1980 Moscow Games, which the U.S. boycotted.
“I’ll do my part,” Dressel said. “I’ll do great on the relay.”
Top 5 all-time performer in:
50 FR LCM
50 FR SCM (NR 1)
100 FR LCM
100 FR SCM
50 FLY LCM
100 FLY LCM (NR 1)
100 FLY SCM (NR 1)
100 IM (NR 1)
If you count out the 100 FR, he is top 3.
Only Olympic Champion in history in the 50FR, 100FR and 100FLY at the same games.
Only two-time consecutive world champion in the 50FR, 100FR and 100FLY.
Training for just one of these things, and sprint training in general, totally drains you and makes you develop a certain obsessive behaviour so that you can perform at the highest level of intensity.
Now going… Read more »
In his comeback since early 2023, it looks like steady progress to me. Yes, he doesn’t have the explosiveness or the start he had in 2017-2020, but it’s been improving every meet he’s had (except maybe this meet specifically).
If he wants to, and keeps training, I think he can get back to something very close to his old form, which would make him an easy favorite for gold in an international 100 fly and maybe 50 free as well.
Whether he wants to though, is up to him. He doesn’t owe anyone anything
I would love to see dressel train specifically for the 50 in a similar way to Mcevoy
But the bathtub is the root of all American swimming problems!
Dressel’s 2017-2020 days are over. That’s okay, because few can do that grueling schedule.
-Drop the 100 free individually (relay swimmer).
-No more triples.
-I think Dressel can still be highly competitive in the 100 fly and 50 free.
None have even attempted that schedule.
I mean this in the best way possible, but I think that reaction yesterday indicates he’s may not actually be “at peace” with not being near his best.
I think we’ll be seeing him go for “redemption” (melodramatic AF but whatever) in LA
Well I think he’s “at peace” but doesn’t mean he can’t be disappointed or use a poor performance as motivation to have better ones in the future.
He’s definitely got a great attitude and is contextualizing his performances in his work appropriately.
I’m bullish on Caeleb in the next quad!
100%. I wasn’t convinced he was at peace in the little interview vignette they did on him on NBC. I was certainly unconvinced after his emotional break down last night.
I hope he says “No” to LA ’28. I’m not sure another 4 years of training would be good for him, no matter what results he could manage to produce. Prayer’s he can learn to be at peace with himself as a former swimmer, because it seems he can’t find peace in the pool as a competitor.
His mental maturity has come a long way since Tokyo
Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough training to contest for individual medals, which is ok
Agree it isn’t that dressel lost his competitive edge it’s that he has taken time off from swimming and hasn’t raced internationally since 2022 so this part was never going to be any easier that it may have felt before that. The timeframe since coming back has been rly impressive as it is. He’ll be back but yesterday May have been the biggest lesson for guys like Caeleb and he’ll learn from this. As DP once said “you either win or you learn something”
What a great athlete and a better individual. I hope this is not the last time we see him compete, but whatever he decides he’ll go down as one of the best sprinters in history.
Swim fans love to soft talk these guys. He’s not swimming well yet even mentioning that you get all the downvotes. They are pro athletes if lebron or someone had a performance like this the media would be lighting them on fire. God forbid you say anything remotely critical of a swimmer as long as they are having fun right
Caeleb Dressel is a hero not matter how he swims, so yah.
Yes it would’ve been ideal if he swam faster, but he’s already beating himself up over it – we don’t need to do the same
This is what I’m saying lol. Its pro sport criticism is warranted and allowed, for all athletes. Saying only positive things is boring and does not help grow the sport.
Yah being a dick about it is gonna make them go so much faster
You are boring 😆
Bowman was a dick to Phelps and Phelps would still be the best swimmer on this team.
And look at what Phelps has openly talked about with his mental health and the struggles he has had with that. Are we really having this discussion?
This is where USA Swimming has taught their athletes wrong.
Being criticized is not the same as people “being a dick.” That confusion is made intentionally to protect egos, stunt development, etc.
If USA Swimming had proper mental health resources, the athletes would be taught “you cannot control what anyone else says, you can only control how you respond to it.” But that is clearly not what is happening in Colorado Springs.
To my knowledge, USA Swimming actually runs no clubs and supervises no coaches. Resources are passively provided – and encouraged to be utilized – but USA Swimming has zero operational control of clubs/coaches.
Criticism is not what we’re talking about here. “Soft talk”, as was said by the OP, is not referencing constructive critique and discussion of how or why someone performed poorly. It’s a toxic mindset that you need to be “hard”, you shouldn’t have any empathy when someone has a reaction like Dressel, you should just pile on and tell them how bad they did.
Being given feedback and criticism is wholly different than that. We can definitely talk about whether he has the right training program, whether swimmers like Pan Zhanle and Popovici show you actually don’t need to be as big muscularly to be fast in long course swimming, etc. That’s fair game, saying “swim fans love to… Read more »
I find negativity to be boring actually. It’s only a sport at the end of the day.
A hero? He isn’t getting out of a Higgin’s boat on Omaha Beach. He couldn’t get on the blocks at a World Championship. Do we want kids to see that kind of behavior? People are way too soft. Everyone is a victim and we call them heroes when they admit their victimhood. Do you know who is a hero? Riley Gaines. She stood up when she knew crap from all of the “victims” would rain down on her. I like Caleb and wish him the best, but I love Riley Gaines.
Looks like you are taking care of that criticism all by yourself. What more do you expect? He fell short of his goals, he acknowledged that and he is moving on. Yes he was clearly disappointed, but still managed to show grace at a very tough time. He has nothing to prove to anyone.
Yeah, I sorta…am of two minds here. I think it made sense to barely criticize anyone for how they were swimming the last few years, given it was a bit of a turbulent time overall.
But I meaaaaaannnnn, clearly some folks are just way off this week and that seems extremely out of character for the US in particular.
I’m not sure who to be mad at, but there’s clearly some overhauls are necessary.
I’m not advocating excessive “bullying” but all sunshine and rainbows is childish. Swimmers want to have a more respected sport that’s talked about year round, well that’s not possible molly coddling the people with the biggest names
That’s an asinine approach to this and accomplishes nothing when it comes to improved performance, and has nothing to do with how big the sport is.
The problem in swimming, and I wager US swimming included, is actually mostly related to 2 things IMO. 1) The focus on short course swimming that comes from collegiate programs being the training hubs for most of our top swimmers, and 2) A continued stubbornness when it comes to adopting a more science/data backed approach to training.
Some places in the US have done so and I think they’re seeing generally better success, but the Aussies I know have implemented this across the board and it shows.
Some discussion about “sunshine… Read more »
Good point. I always find it interesting that the comments section here seems to never acknowledge that coaching in the US is not professionalized. No degree or standard certifications needed? College coaches just need any old degree in any subject, meanwhile other countries have adopted actual coaching standards? It might have been fine for a while but maybe it’s catching up. AUS has been at the forefront of sport science for decades and it clearly shows in how much they punch above their weight.
And I disagree with the way the media treats athletes like LeBron James too. We should be more empathetic with athletes and should support athletes that show emotions, that show it’s okay to express sadness, disappointment, etc in healthy ways.