The cone-of-silence that has surrounded Caeleb Dressel (and his teammates) everywhere they’ve gone in the last year seems to be peeling back a little as the US National Championships are about to begin on Tuesday.
His coach Anthony Nesty discussed Dressel’s comeback briefly with NBC, discussing one of his star trainees publicly for the first time since Dressel withdrew unexpectedly from last year’s World Championships mid-meet.
“He’s doing good,” Nesty said. “Training-wise, he did a really nice job coming back. … All we can do is support Caeleb where he’s at, and he knows where he’s at. We’ll see what we get next week. How he’s going to do, I don’t have a crystal ball. But, again, he’s one of the ultimate professionals. He loves the sport. He takes care of his body well. I think if you take care of your body, your chances of being successful are pretty good.”
Nesty’s description of the 7-time Olympic gold medalist and where he’s gives hints as to how they’re approaching the comeback. While coaches are often loathe to say too much publicly about expectations for an athlete, Nesty emphasized that they’re supporting “Caeleb where he’s at.”
Dressel hasn’t spoken to media or posted much on social media since leaving Worlds aside from a September 4 Instagram post where he said he hadn’t swum without Worlds and said that he had “been happy without swimming.”
He began training again around Christmas and has raced one full meet schedule since then.
This week, Dressel is entered in his four primary events: the 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 free, and 100 free.
In the interview, Nesty also discusses others among the stable of stars in Gainesville, including Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke, and he also talks about the team’s new rallying cry:
“Ding Dong!”
Everybody get ready for some
I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people here. He wouldn’t be competing if he had the slightest doubt he wasn’t ready IMO.
We’re quick to forget Phelps took several months off after Beijing (taking significantly worse care of his body) and still swam best times in Rome. Chalmers has had a million breaks for surgeries and still pops off a 47-flat on demand when it matters. It’s 50’s and 100’s, not the 400 IM.
Dressel definitely not out here toking it up either
Everybody, his brother and the janitor all popped off best times in Rome.
Phelps was using the same suit as Beijing tho
Yes, but Michael wasn’t in one of the fancy new tech suits from Jaked or Arena. He was in a LZR dropping times faster than he had gone in Beijing with the same suit.
Hear me out for a second. Maybe this trials is part of him learning to deal with falling short and being ok with failure in the eyes of what the swimming worlds expectations are for him. “Where he’s at” seems to me like he’s definitely not in the shape he considers peak form. So if he goes out and has solid swims for “where’s he’s at” and doesn’t make the team it is part of the plan for his future. We all know the pressure these athletes face when at the top and we have seen some of them crack and need some time away to reflect. Mentally this could be a hurdle for him to overcome. I’m no psychologist… Read more »
I don’t trust Nesty in the slightest. He always gives off the feeling that he’s hiding something
This is a pretty weird take. What could Nesty possibly be ‘hiding’ here? He’s just keeping things neutral, and anything more would involve giving the news media a detailed breakdown of what his athlete is doing in practice. Not doing this (especially when your athlete is coming off a hiatus and there is a lot of pressure/scrutiny) is actually pretty standard operating procedure and a good sign of professionalism. This idea that Nesty is ‘hiding things’ from you or anybody else just seems out of place, and, may I say, slightly paranoid? Like, real talk, what about this guy seems so untrustworthy?
hopefully the media leaves Caeleb alone, no interviews for him please
I like his answer “if we knew the result we wouldn’t be here”
If he does well then he is super swimmer hero comeback story. If he doesn’t do so good then he has barely been back and is not in form. PR has it covered.
There is a town in Texas called Ding Dong not far from where I live…Population of 22 in 2000
Bold prediction: 20.9 at worlds. Very good chance that he has built up some more raw power after being away from the pool. I don’t think his 100s will be at the level they were in the past but l think his 50s will be back if not faster than pre break.
Ah yes! “Raw power!”
I’m glad to see someone else is using the ROCK CLIMBING angle.
Maybe at short course worlds