Caeleb Dressel Is Unanimous Choice As World Male Swimmer of the Year
Given the option, Caeleb Dressel would avoid the flashbulbs. He would hop out of the water, his latest scintillating performance registered, and disappear. Such is the personality of the American standout, whose unassuming and measured nature runs counter to the explosiveness he brings to the pool.
As much as Dressel may prefer to dodge the spotlight, his aversion to attention has not impeded his climb up the ladder of all-time greats in the sport. When the pressure is at its peak and Dressel is challenged to produce, the Florida native simply rises to the moment and taps into the talent he possesses.
Ahead of last summer’s Olympic Games, vast expectations were heaped on Dressel, whose multi-medal potential led to comparisons with the past three iconic American stars – Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi and Michael Phelps. Because the initial date of the Tokyo Games was derailed by to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dressel had to carry the weight of his country for an extended period.
No problem.
Five years after making his Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, Dressel flourished in Tokyo, sandwiching a pair of relay titles with his United States teammates around three individual gold medals that left no doubt about his status as swimming’s No. 1 headliner. In voting for Swimming World Male Swimmer of the Year, Dressel claimed all 11 first-place votes to finish with a perfect 55 points. He was followed in the balloting by Russia’s Evgeny Rylov (32 points) and Great Britain’s Adam Peaty (25 points).
During his spectacular run in Tokyo, Dressel was masterful at managing both his emotions, and athletic exploits – not that the balancing act was easy. For eight days, he wore a shield of armor that belied the true feelings that ran through his body. And once his work was done, the 25-year-old had no trouble opening up about his experience.
“I’m really good at hiding my emotions until I’m not,” Dressel said at his final press conference of the Games. “I can put a pretty good show on before each race, but once I shut it down, it floods out. It was a relief (when it was over). This is not easy. It’s not an easy week at all. Some parts were extremely enjoyable. I would say a majority of them were not.”
Dressel’s first solo event brought his biggest challenge, with reigning Olympic champ Kyle Chalmers a formidable foe in the 100-meter freestyle. Ultimately, Dressel rode his early speed to a 47.02 to 47.08 win, as the Australian was closing furiously in the final meters. That gold was followed by a title in the 100 butterfly, as Dressel blasted a world record of 49.45 to dispatch Hungarian Kristof Milak, whose 49.68 marker was a European record and faster than anyone in history – except Dressel.
For his solo finale, and in the event with the least margin for error, Dressel notched his most decisive victory. Racing the 50 freestyle, the American unloaded an Olympic record of 21.07 to easily better the silver-medal time of France’s Florent Manaudou (21.55), who was the 2012 Olympic champion and also the silver medalist in the event in 2016.
On the front and back ends of his Olympic reign, Dressel powered the United States to a pair of relay triumphs. After jumpstarting a dominant decision by the 400 freestyle relay, Dressel punctuated his performance by handling the butterfly leg on the world-record setting 400 medley relay.
Inarguably, it was a special competition for Dressel, whose humility allowed him to manage the pressure and maintain a perspective that spoke volumes about his maturity.
“I was nervous before every race,” Dressel said. “Every race was not perfect by any means. Every race approach wasn’t perfect. Every ready-room approach wasn’t perfect. Every morning when I’d wake up, the first words out of my mouth weren’t, ‘oh I’m so excited.’ Sometimes it was, ‘oh (bleep), this is going to suck today.’ And that’s fine. It’s what you take from that moving forward, and I think I learned a lot. I really appreciated my time here, not because every moment was good, but because every moment I gained something.”