Caeleb Dressel and wife Meghan Dressel announced the couple’s first pregnancy.
“Mom and Dad. Baby Dressel coming February 2024,” Meghan Dressel posted.
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Caeleb’s post included a joke: “It’s ok, you can put comments about my good swimmers.”
The couple was married in 2021 on Valentine’s Day weekend in Florida.
Dressel won three individual Olympic gold medals in Tokyo, then took nearly a year away from the pool before returning at the U.S. National Championships last month in Indianapolis.
“I have always said that, since the first time I gave a talk – you gotta take a break. That is my main message to every age-group swimmer,” Dressel said at nationals. “I was that kid who took two months and did not think anything of it. I would go play soccer or football or run track. It’s healthy. It is hard to see that when you get higher up in the sport, but I needed it.”
He finished tied for 22nd in the 50 freestyle prelims. His time of 22.72 came up 1.68 seconds behind his own American record of 21.04. Dressel chose to scratch the C-final. But Dressel finished third in the 50 butterfly (23.35), in a tie for fifth in the 100 fly (51.66) and 19th in the 100 free (49.64), with none of his times close to his career-bests.
But the bigger victory was the return.
“I had a smile on my face racing. There is a difference between being scared of embarrassing yourself and having a joy of racing, and I haven’t had that joy in a long time,” Caeleb Dressel said. “I got it back. The times weren’t fast – they weren’t bad – but they weren’t fast. If I can have the mindset I had in this meet next year and years after this, I can have a very long and very successful career.”
And that will include one more in the family.