U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS - SWIMMING

June 22, 2024

Caeleb Dressel

Lucas Oil Stadium

Media Conference

CAELEB DRESSEL: I've been progressing great from last year to this point. I'm going to keep it rolling and then get faster in Paris and then go from there. I know I'm defending champ; There is no way around that, but I feel like I am chasing those guys, as well.

Q. What would you say the story of this week has been from your perspective?

CAELEB DRESSEL: I think the Men's 100 Free. I think that has been one of the most impressive things I've seen. Thomas as well, 17 years old making an Olympic Team. That's unheard of. But I think seeing Thomas and six guys go under 48 is one of the most impressive things I've seen on the men's side at this swim meet.

And Gretchen's 100 Fly, a world record. I got to watch one of the fastest swims of all time. It's been a long week. It's all kind of meshed together so yeah probably those top three.

Oh, just -- oh. There has been a lot of ups and downs. Just in this time that I've been here. Quite a few, actually. I know it might not seem that way, because you've seen the smiles and me getting out of the water. I am happy. I am happy with a lot of my swims, and to be back to a place that I wanted to be with the sport is exceptional.

I'm really proud of myself for that. So I don't know if I have one swim in particular, but getting that weight off my shoulders for 100 Free, making the team, it made the rest of the week a little easier and bittersweet, because I got third. But with Jack and Chris, I mean, they deserve that spot. I got beat.

I mean, watching Jack go 47.0 and Chris, 47.2. Those guys deserve to be on Team USA. So for me being third place, which is relatively new, and I don't mean that in an arrogant way, it was refreshing -- the first time I saw first place on the scoreboard was so it just made me happy that younger generation. So I'm just doing a terrible job answering your questions, because now I'm talking about two other guys.

But I think all my swims I executed as well as I could, 100 Free, could I have found 6 more 100ths, I don't know, but Jack and Chris deserve to be the two guys going for Team USA.

Q. It seems like you enjoyed interacting with the younger swimmers. You and Thomas just kind of raising the hands together in that scene there made me think about what Coach Nesty said about you and the pressure that had been on you after Phelps refired. I wonder how you have grappled with that pressure and has the younger generation eased some of that or helps you handle that differently now?

CAELEB DRESSEL: That's a great question. I just know what it felt like when I made my first Olympic Team in 2016, so to see it on the faces of a lot of these super young kids, just making their first Olympic Team, it's so special, because I know what that feeling is. And for everything to come together that you have been training for in such a brief moment of time. It's one of the greatest feelings and then getting to go to the Olympic Team after that.

This truly is the hardest part of this whole process of Olympic years. I'm excited to meet -- I think there are a couple of guys on the team that I haven't got a chance to actually meet yet. I introduced myself to Thomas this year, a couple of the Pro swims, I think when we were in Chicago or something like that. The kid is awesome. The kid is awesome.

Yeah, it makes me happy seeing these younger kids. I don't really feel any pressure from it. And there is a lot of pride that hopefully maybe I had a little bit of something to do with them reaching what their goals are and going times that they didn't think they were capable of. I think that's the sweet part of the sport.

I said this in an interview when I was doing the Mixed Zone, for me that was Nathan Adrian. You know, I watched him win in London. I remember exactly where I was sitting, watching his last seven strokes where he put his head down. I remember watching that and four years later I'm on the team with him. I thought I was supposed to hate the guy when I met him. I thought, you aren't supposed to like your competitors, but he just showed me what a true leader is on this team, and he kept that up for -- I mean, we had a couple more teams after Rio with Nathan.

But he ws the larger-than-life image for me, and turns out he was just a guy, who is just really fast in the 100 Free. I think that's what all the leaders on Team USA have done. Before you know it, you're one of the leaders. I can't take credit for that; it's embedded in USA Swimming. It's historic.

Q. Caeleb, I'm wondering how this feels differently for you as opposed to three years ago and even eight years ago.

CAELEB DRESSEL: Yeah, all totally different experiences. It's hard to put into words until you're actually boots on the ground, feeling the meet, but I don't know -- like 2016, it was extremely nerve-wracking, because I was a young kid. It was my second Trials. The Trials before that I bombed. I think I got last in most of my events. I think I didn't get last in one of my event because someone got DQ'd.

So I went from that to making the team, and 2020 my face was on the outside of the building, and this one I still had goals that I wanted to accomplish here. I feel like I executed as best I could, so three totally different experiences, but some stuff very much the same. Same excitement around it, same ambiance, same crowd. Something I never done that all of the sudden I started doing this meet was putting my hands in the air, walking out.

I've never done that in my life, and all of the sudden I'm like, I'm kinda feeling this. Just the crowd, feeling the love from everybody, that's something new. I thought all right, I guess we're doing this. And I had a pretty good swim, so I'm like, I gotta do this every time now. The crowd has been really, really special here. So three totally different experience. All have been fantastic, and all have been really tough.

Q. What is this week -- has this week meant to you to experience this as a dad and what lessons are you taking away from this week that you're going to tell your kid about?

CAELEB DRESSEL: I don't know about any lessons at this moment. I think there is going to be quite a few things in my career that I haven't fully digested yet to put into my dad speeches. Just like when you make an Olympic Team no one can take that away from you, you're going an Olympian the rest of your life, and something that's really special is my son got to watch me make an Olympic Team.

And no one can take that away. He's not going to remember it. I will tell him, trust me, I got photos so I can prove it, and sharing that with Meghan. They're right back there. He's asleep, so keep it down.

Yeah, that was -- and it's not something that I thought about how special it would be until I've chewed on it will a little more, and now that I'm done swimming, thinking about some of those photos everyone was talking about. I finally went on Instagram back there and I got choked up.

That was a really special moment of -- Meghan knows what goes into this, not just the parenting side of things but she gets to see firsthand the struggles that come with the sport. So for everything to come together -- and for every swimmer that's sat up here, it's tough. There is no way around it. I'm not going to elaborate on it anymore. There's no point. Everyone who has sat up here knows exactly what I'm talking about, and Meghan has seen that firsthand. The tears that come with it, the frustration and then also the high points, and getting to share that with them, because they go through that as well. So that was really special August getting to see that.

Q. I don't know if this is piggybacking off the questions that have been asked but I know a lot of people in my lane of work tend to look for the next so and so, the next whatever and in this sport, because of the crazy high bar that Michael Phelps set, that was Phelps. Do you know that's a fair comparison? Given that that was hoisted on you for the last Games, like, how -- do you think that's something that we should be moving away from given the dynamic of how rare Phelps was?

CAELEB DRESSEL: We're not going to see -- for sure not in my lifetime, we're not going to see another Michael, and the longer he has been out of the sport, the more impressive he's been. We almost got immune to it when he was in the sport, and I think it will be a similar thing when Katie decides to retire.

I don't think we will now how dominant they actually were until -- we're eight years since Michael has been retired? He made five Olympic Teams, he won the 2 IM three Olympics in a row? Was it four? 2 Fly, 2 IM, was 100 Fly three in a row? Yeah, just things that don't even make sense.

When I did it once I'm like, boy, it's really tough! But we just got immune to it. I don't blame the media at all for trying to find the next guy. It's exciting. Everyone wants the next guy. MP was -- I don't think we're going to see another one of him for a while, a very, very long time, especially the fashion in which he did it and the longevity of his career.

I think that's the most impressive part. It wasn't just one or two Olympics. I mean, it was five where he was extremely dominant. I get it, trying to find the next guy, but I have said multiple times, I'm not Michael, at all, and I'm fine with admitting that. I struggled with it a little bit in the beginning, oh man these comparisons don't seem fair.

And it's easy to say that's not me; I'm a sprinter. I think I'm pretty damn good at what I do. So I'm fine with calling it that, and I've exceeded a lot of my expectations in the sport, and I have drained the talent that I have, and I'm still continuing to do that.

I used to be like -- have a little shame behind I'm not Michael; I probably never will be Michael. I'm never go be to go Michael. I'm very proud of the things I have done in this sport and will continue to do, but, yeah, there will never be another Michael.

Q. Congrats on a second victory tonight. You talked about the ups and downs of this meet and what you went through. You said no need to keep harping on what prompted you to step away. I'm just curious if finding that getting back to the happiness and the joy you felt for swimming maybe at an earlier point in your life, is that something you are trying to get back to again? Is that possible? Or are you just at a different phase in your life. With what you went through and where you are trying to get to now, and where do you think it's possible to get to now?

CAELEB DRESSEL: I don't know. I don't know what's possible. I would love if I could get back to the point where I was five years old, you don't care what your meet warm-up is, you don't even know times yet or if you do swim a time you drop 20 seconds in the 50 Free. Those honestly were some of the best days.

It was just because it was simply swimming. That's all that it was. You were just swimming. There wasn't any media, you didn't care how you felt. You probably always felt amazing because you weighed 48 pounds. So that's what drew me into the sport, and there's things that I've put up with that I don't like or things about the sport that I hate.

You have to learn to -- things I have to learn to put up with just so you can stay in the sport. Yeah, but -- man, if I could get back to the 10 year old just simply swimming -- but it won't be that. That's the hard part. I would love to get to that point, but it won't. You swim fast and get a little buzz around you, then you perform at the Olympic Games, so I get it. I get the attention. I've said that it was just me, Nesty and some teammates, I'm a happy guy.

Q. Congratulations. It's been wonderful to see you at this level. My question is similar to Paul's. Because you said it, and I happen to agree with it, that you are potentially influencing someone like Thomas, that you are inspiring some of the younger swimmers. So I guess I'm going to use your words, do you still think that you are capable of swimming times that you might right now think are not possible?

CAELEB DRESSEL: Times that are not possible. Soft question. That's a really soft question. I don't know if I'll ever go a best time ever again, and that's tough to say out loud, it really is. When you're 19, 20, 21, you keep chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. I'm still working harder than ever, finding outlets, finding every path I can take to shave those couple 10ths. I don't know. I don't know if I can do that. I'm really good at racing. You put me in a race, I will make it close, as close as I possibly can, even if I have to try to kill myself to get there. I will put myself in those situations.

I think 100 Free is a good example. I came up short. I was a couple 10ths off my best. I don't know. I'm doing everything I can. Some things are out of my control. Going times that aren't possible? I'm not sure. I wish I had a better answer for your question. It's a fantastic question. Thank you all.