Caeleb Dressel: ‘Plenty Left in the Tank’ After First Two Wins in Greensboro

Caeleb Dressel -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Caeleb Dressel: ‘Plenty Left in the Tank’ After First Two Wins in Greensboro

The 100 freestyle provided the most dramatic of Caeleb Dressel’s golden moments at the Tokyo Olympics. In the final of the blue-ribband event, Dressel required every last drop of energy to fight to the finish and hold off Australian rival Kyle Chalmers for gold by just six hundredths.

Nine months later, at his first long course meet of any consequence since the Tokyo Games, Dressel began his schedule of events at the U.S. International Team Trials in Greensboro with the 100 free, and he admitted, he had some nerves. Even after winning on the biggest stage in sports. But Dressel indeed secured the win in that final as he touched in 47.79, 0.25 clear of runnerup Brooks Curry.

“That’s the last one to come around, so to have it be the first event at Trials and put together a good one, I’m happy with that,” Dressel said. “That’s how my body has always worked. I don’t know why. It’s just like that every single time. I have no idea. Maybe it’s because freestyle is the most-trained stroke I have, so it takes a little longer to come around. I’m not sure. I just know that’s how it works.”

But Dressel did what he needed to do, secure a spot at World Championships. He did the same Wednesday evening in the 50 butterfly when he out-touched Michael Andrew by three hundredths to earn the one available roster spot for the event. “It’s kind of what all Trials are, to be honest,” Dressel said. “You’re here to get the job done.”

Seems simple enough, but in a year like 2022, not so much. This is a post-Olympic year, so Dressel took a well-deserved break from serious training in the months after the Olympics, although he did compete in International Swimming League events in early September and then for three weeks beginning in mid-November. This is a short season, with Dressel only declaring himself “all-in” on December 15, just over four months before the International Team Trials were set to begin. And shortly after returning to full-time training, Dressel had to deal with multiple bouts of illness that forced him to be out of the water.

He has also made a coaching change, from Gregg Troy’s small pro group to the University of Florida college squad under coaches Anthony Nesty and Steve Jungbluth. Speaking on the changes in his training this year, Dressel said, “We’re not rewriting any books here. We’re just writing maybe a new chapter here and there.”

All of these factors add up to different vibes than Dressel has become accustomed to during his run of dominant swimming over the past five years. “It’s been a very interesting year,” he admitted.

And yet, the signs are still pointing to another dominant showing for Dressel at the World Championships this summer, back in the same Budapest venue where he exploded onto the international scene by winning seven world titles in 2017. Some of the fields will be watered-down this year because of a packed international calendar. Top Australians such as Chalmers set to skip the meet, so perhaps Dressel won’t need to be quite at his vintage level in order to dominate. His focus following these Trials will be the same as it ever was: figure out how to get faster.

“We have a month for 100 free to figure out how to be faster, a month for 50 fly, hopefully a month for 100 fly tomorrow and 50 free,” Dressel said. “We’re going to try to dial in things every single time that we can, but this is my first time tapering with this group. We figured it out for the most part, but we’ve still got plenty left in the tank.”

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