Caeleb Dressel, Suni Lee Named Sports Illustrated Athletes of the Year

Aug 1, 2021; Tokyo, Japan; Caeleb Dressel (USA) and Bruno Fratus (BRA) react after the men's 50m freestyle final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Caeleb Dressel. Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher/USA Today Sports

Olympic gold medalists Caeleb Dressel and Suni Lee have been named Sports Illustrated Athletes of the Year.

They were given the awards on Tuesday night, the same night Dressel was named the Male Swimmer of the Year at the USA Swimming Golden Goggle Awards.

Dressel has been one of the world’s elite swimmers for years, but at age 25, had his breakout performance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He swam six events in the Olympics and is just the third American male to win three individual golds during a single summer games, something only Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz.

In those six events, Dressel won five gold medals.

Caeleb Dressel broke the American record (twice) and world record (once) this summer in the 100-meter butterfly and set U.S. Open records in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly this summer at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming.

In Tokyo, Dressel won gold medals in the 100 free, 100 butterfly, 50 free, the 400 free relay and the 400 medley relay.

Dressel shared a moment about coach Gregg Troy with SI after growing frustrated with his training during the pandemic.

“He looks at me and he says, ‘You know, that all sounds great. You just tell me what you want for me.’ And my jaw hit the ground because he was supposed to be yelling back at me. I realized I needed a coach,” Caeleb Dressel said. “And that moment, I’ve never been more humbled in my life because to be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m really good at swimming fast, but I don’t know how to swim fast. I need someone to teach me that.”

Lee won gold in the all-around in gymnastics, becoming one of the faces of the Tokyo Olympics. She helped the U.S. to silver in the team event.

“The one thing that I would say would be you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great,” Lee told SI. “And I think that’s something that’s so important because people tend to get caught up in trying to live up to a standard.”

Read the full SI story

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