2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
- Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
- La Défense Arena — Paris, France
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Full Swimming Schedule
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Pick ’em Contest
- How To Watch
- Live Results
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.
This is a very strange place for Iranian propaganda
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.