Caeleb Dressel smiled as he swam a consolation final at the U.S. Swimming Championships. The five-time Tokyo Olympic champion finished third, fifth, 19th and tied for 22nd (in the heats) in his four events this week, returning to major competition for the first time since a months-long break from the sport last year.
“I’m proud of myself for the results,” Dressel said Saturday.
Dressel spoke to the media for the first time since withdrawing during last June’s world championships on unspecified medical grounds. He took at least two months off from swimming (except to do so with manatees), returned to training with his University of Florida-based group in the winter and worked his way up to a full, weeklong practice load in May.
Dressel raced at one full meet going into nationals and went into this week ranked outside the top five in the nation in his four primary events by best times this year. So it wasn’t shocking that Dressel, the fastest American in history in those four events, didn’t make the team for the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, that start in three weeks.
His coach, Anthony Nesty, said this meet was a starting point with the focus on next June’s Olympic Trials in Indianapolis.
“Very indifferent about my results,” Dressel said. “Kind of being pulled both ways of a little embarrassed, kind of what just happened, then also fully understanding of what just happened and the year I’ve had. So I get it. I’ve always loved the sport and how fair it is, so I know the timing of the year and what it’s been.”
Dressel said he took a break from the sport last summer because “a bunch of things that kind of came crumbling down at once.”
“The easiest way to put it: my body kept score,” he said. “There’s a lot of things I shoved down and all came boiling up, so I didn’t really have a choice. I used to pride myself on being able to shove things down and push it aside and plow through it. It worked for a very long time in my career ... until I couldn’t do that anymore.”
Early in his time away, Dressel didn’t know if he would return to competition. He then had an epiphany while mowing (Dressel and wife Meghan live on 10 acres in rural Micanopy, just south of Gainesville).
“I’ll never forget the spot I was going around,” with a zero-turn mower, Dressel said. “It just popped in my head, like, oh, if I never come back to swimming, I’m going to be OK. And that’s how I knew I was somewhat ready to come back.”
He repeated that he would not change one thing about the last year, including his results this week.
“I had a smile on my face actually racing,” he said. “It’s the difference between racing scared -- you don’t want to embarrass yourself -- and then actually enjoying racing. And I haven’t had that enjoyment in quite some time.”
He is now looking forward to swimming so much that he doesn’t want to take a break before offseason training starts in August.
“I missed it almost every day,” he said. “I missed the little things in the sport. Blowing bubbles. My toes on the grip tape. Chlorine, believe it or not.”
