NANTERRE, France — Friday was was a no-good, very-bad day for Caeleb Dressel.
In the span of an hour, the eight-time Olympic gold medalist missed the podium in one of his signature events with a sixth-place finish in the men’s 50-meter freestyle and then failed to reach the final in another — the men’s 100-meter butterfly — here at the Paris Games.
He will go home with no medals in individual events. Dressel won gold as part of the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay last weekend and will have chances for medals in the men’s medley relay and the mixed-gender medley relay. But it is undoubtedly a massively disappointing Olympics for someone who was expected to be one of the brightest stars of Team USA.
“It was very obviously not my best work,” Dressel said. “It hasn’t been my best week. I don’t think I need to shy away from that. But the racing has been really fun here. Walking out for the the 50 and the 100 fly, it was special. I don’t want to ever forget that. I’d like to be quicker, obviously. Not my week.”
Cameron McEvoy makes HISTORY. 🇦🇺
He takes gold in the 50m free to become the first-ever Australian to medal in the event!#ParisOlympics | 📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/XU5wOqYXCy
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 2, 2024
Dressel, 27, said he would focus on the fun he had here at the Olympics as he prepares for the medley events. He’s spoken a lot in recent months about the work he’s done on himself to be less of a perfectionist and someone who can find joy in swimming again. He emphasized Friday night that he’s trying not to dwell on the times he posted, though his 100 fly time of 51.57 (which ranked 13th of the 16 semifinalists) was far from his personal best.
“I’m actually enjoying the moment — I’m at the Olympic Games,” Dressel said. “I won’t forget that. I’d like to be performing better, but I’m not. I trained to go faster than the times I’m going. I know that. So, yeah. It’s tough, a little heartbreaking. A little heartbreaking for sure.”
For Dressel, his path to this particular Olympics was far different than the two before it. This one comes after he took an eight-month break from the sport he’s long dominated because it broke him. His chase for perfection had made him miserable, even when he was winning all those gold medals in Tokyo three summers ago.
He took time away from the pool to figure out who he was without swimming. He relied on therapy and his wife, Meghan. He needed space to determine how he wanted the sport to fit into his life when he eventually came back.
“It’s really tough,” Dressel told The Athletic earlier this summer. “It’s embedded in me — where you always want to look for ways to get better. I’m still doing that, but I’m not becoming obsessed and so fixated on it that I lose sight of what’s actually fun with the sport. It’s hard, and it’s not like I’ve all of a sudden gotten to figure it out this year. There are things that I’m really proud that I’ve done differently, like being able to enjoy parts of the sport without just crapping on myself for not being perfect.
“It is still very much a work in progress.”
GO DEEPER
Behind Caeleb Dressel’s Olympic return, ‘a work in progress’ to rekindle his love for swimming
That’s a phrase he used again Friday night when he said he believes he has years ahead of him in the pool, and that he is looking forward to them.
Required reading
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
