{"id":454787,"date":"2020-11-19T13:59:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=454787"},"modified":"2020-11-19T13:59:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:59:37","slug":"assessing-caeleb-dressels-world-record-chances-in-the-isl-grand-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/assessing-caeleb-dressels-world-record-chances-in-the-isl-grand-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Caeleb Dressel\u2019s World Record Chances in the ISL Grand Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> just keeps getting faster. That\u2019s not a folksy, gee-whiz, qualitative observation. Instead, it\u2019s backed by the times: Almost unfailingly in this second International Swimming League season, Dressel has gotten faster every meet. As you\u2019ll see below, in the five events he\u2019s swum in all five of his ISL matches, he\u2019s dropped time match-by-match in three of them, like clockwork.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s also certain is that in every one of his events, Dressel was fastest the last time he swam, leading the Cali Condors to their fifth consecutive win. And when Dressel hits best times, records fall, because he\u2019s Caeleb Dressel.<\/p>\n

His performance in ISL Semifinal 2<\/a> led to three American records and one world record, the stirring performance in the 100 individual medley<\/a> in which he became the first man to break the 50-second barrier.<\/p>\n

So what can he do in the Grand Final this year<\/a>? In last year\u2019s event in Las Vegas<\/a>, Dressel set three American records and a world record. Can he top that in the Budapest bubble?<\/p>\n

Event by event, here\u2019s what Dressel is looking at in terms of chasing history. (Unless otherwise noted, the progression for Dressel\u2019s times this season is Match 1, Match 4, Match 8, Match 10, Semifinal 2)<\/em><\/p>\n