Ultra Swim Swimmer of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based swimmer who has proven themselves over the past month. As with any item of recognition, Swimmer of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one athlete whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a swimmer who was visibly outperforming other swimmers over the month, or one whose accomplishments slipped through the cracks among other high-profile swims. If your favorite athlete wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.
- 17.63
- 42.80
- 39.90
We could have written this article in those three bullet points alone. Maybe a mic drop at the end for good measure.
There really isn’t much left to be said about how impressive Caeleb Dressel was last week in the fastest four days of short course swimming in the history of histories. Every so often, we – the collective “we” of the community of swimming fandom, swimmers, swammers, coaches, parents and sport enthusiasts – get to see a swimmer go after a special barrier. Swimming veterans remember where they were the first time a man went under 1:50 in a 200 breaststroke; there are still stories told to children and younger swimmers about watching the first-ever 18-second 50 free.
Last week, we were treated to five such swims. Every single one hit their goal of smashing that barrier, and three of the swims came from Dressel himself.
The first sub-18 50 free from a flat start. The first sub-40 100 free of all-time. The first sub-43 100 fly in history.
For a story that started by saying how little there was left to say, this one has found quite a bit to gush about.
That’s a common sentiment among swimmers, who spent much of last week trying to explain to their non-swimming friends, family and co-workers just why exactly the number 17.63 meant so much. Maybe in a lot of our cases, we were trying to explain to ourselves, too, just why a 17-second 50 free seemed like it affected us so profoundly.
Experiencing last week was a common bond that all of swimming fandom will share for a lifetime. Let’s cut the inevitable Phelps comparisons. Sure, there was an awe surrounding Dressel’s week that was vaguely familiar to watching Phelps go 8-for-8 in Beijing. The fact that a swimmer could carry any four of his team’s five relays with equally-impressive swims in any stroke, distance or discipline can’t help but draw comparisons to the GOAT. But this experience was all its own. Dressel is his own swimmer. These achievements carry their own weight entirely, a week of repeated collective euphoria of an entire sporting population as the once-unthinkable was done again, and again and again.
And before we bog down in the also-inevitable (but ultimately pointless) critiques and analyses of what this will mean in long course or whether any of these swims even matter if they didn’t happen in one specific month in the fourth year of an arbitrary cycle guiding a world athletic event (as if a meet that drew the eyes of well over a quarter of a million unique sports fans, inspired more than 3,000 comments on our live recaps alone and drew so much traffic it crashed our site twice could somehow mean absolutely nothing simply because there’s a different meet happening in two and a half years that people who don’t care about swimming treat as the only time swimming is important), let’s take a minute to appreciate just what we witnessed last week – whether we can articulate exactly what it was or not.
To close our Swimmer of the Month story, here is a chronological look at each of Dressel’s 14 swims at NCAAs, along with a composite race video of each of his record-breaking swims:
- Day 2 prelims: 200 free relay split – 17.96
- Day 2 prelims: 50 free – 18.11
- Day 2 prelims: 100 free split – 40.27
- Day 2 finals: 200 free relay leadoff – 17.81
- Day 2 finals: 50 free – 17.63
- Day 2 finals: 100 breast split – 50.62
- Day 3 prelims: 100 fly – 44.37
- Day 3 prelims: 200 medley relay free split – 17.30
- Day 3 finals: 100 fly – 42.80
- Day 3 finals: 200 medley relay free split – 17.37
- Day 4 prelims: 100 free – 40.68
- Day 4 prelims: 40 free relay split – 40.15
- Day 4 finals: 100 free – 39.90
- Day 4 finals: 400 free relay split – 40.25
More Dressel race and post-race interviews here
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Joseph Schooling deserves the award though! He went the fastest times in practice and warmups!
Schooling must feel like an idiot after that comment
I can think of a million reasons why schooling will be perfectly fine with this comment… well 682,564.10 after taxes
His 50 was shocking.Time will tell but I’d bet that remains an American / NCAA record for 10+ years. I’m old enough to remember Mary T’s 200 fly in Brown Deer and, while I still believe that to be the most extraordinary swim of all time, 17.63 is very, very close in terms of performance.
What’s crazy, too, is that I think he – Dressel – had a 39-low, 38-high in him for his 100. He was flat-out exhausted by that point in the meet and still went 39.90!!
If he doesn’t get Cielo’s suited lcm 100 time this year, he’ll get it next.
I gotta admit, I was skeptical about Dressel getting all these marks. I didn’t think breaking 40 would happen. His 40.00 was almost a perfect swim last year, and I thought that mark would be the hardest one to improve on. I didn’t think breaking 18 would happen – I expected a new PR in the 18-low range. But 17.63??
I thought maybe the fly record, but even then I only expected 43 low.
What an unforgettable meet. My condolences to Pieroni, Haas, and Finnerty – whose otherworldly records almost seem an afterthought in the wake of Dressel.
Underrated part of a swim that isn’t getting enough love: he’s the first athlete to use a flat start and swim a stroke other than free and break 20 seconds.
I THINK Shields did a 50 fly during the 50 freestyle at 2016 Nationals (same meet he went 43.8) and broke 20, but I can’t remember for sure.
Not technically during a fly race but still…
Nvm just re-watched, it was 20.10 … in a heat surrounded by freestylers so he had some waves, also with the worlds worst start (yes I’m including his others in that)
He went 20.1
…and then did another 50 right after it and went 22.8
One underappreciated thing about this year’s Dressel —- he was so much faster that he could take the prelims of the individual events (still had to hustle to save their relays in prelims) considerably slower, percentage-wise, than in any prior year.
There was never any doubt about this choice, of course, because what Dressel did was not only historic, it had every American swimming fan in shock.
But just a small shout out here to Ella Eastin, whose three victories, and whose taking down of the ARs in the 200 IM by a full second and in the 400 IM by 1.7seconds would, in any other month, have made her the overwhelming choice for this award.
In December 2012 Dressel breaks the 20-second barrier for the first time of his career in 19.82.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrhHc-yqWkg
In December 2013 same with the 19-second barrier in 18.94.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UaEan2EYps
In March 2018 same with the 18-second barrier in 17.81.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpLcH8SY9h0
And then 17.63
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0LCjQ89G58
Is the point of this post to say he should have broken 18 in 2014? ?
It looks like Dressel is going to become a male version of Sarah Sjostrom.Monster dominance in fly and free events.
I love Sjostrom but he’s going way beyond her. She’s never had a major championship where she dominated completely. Manual clipped her twice at the last two biggest meets.
I well Rio was atleast looking like Manuel had a chance. Budapest it was a foregone conclusion that sjostrom would win after the real lead off
2017 worlds when she won the 50 fly was one of the biggest margin of victories (at a major competition) besides dressel.
Those are mighty big shoes to fill. I hope he swims short course meters as much as her.
Not being based on europe will hurt. He will probably end up doing scm worlds but overall stick to domestic yards meets if he does short course.