INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two years after winning five Olympic gold medals, Caleb Dressel didn't even make America's world championship swim team.
Still, the 26-year-old Floridian left this week's national championships with a smile.
Dressel tried and failed four times to make next month's worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, missing the “A” finals twice including his last event Saturday, the 50-meter freestyle. He finished tied for 22nd with a time of 22.72 seconds in the frantic sprint from one end of the pool to the other, 1.07 seconds behind top qualifier Ryan Held and 0.59 outside the top eight.
Unlike earlier this week, though, Dressel opted not to swim in the night session in Indianapolis.
The five-day meet was about more than podium finishes for Dressel. In Dressel's first high-level competition since mysteriously leaving the sport last summer, his coach, Anthony Nesty, saw the joy of competition back on Dressel's face — a sign the long journey back could finally be on track just in time for next year's Olympics.
“He's happy, happy swimming for the first time in a long time,” Nesty said following Saturday morning's preliminary heats. “You know a happy athlete is a fast athlete. Obviously, he's not fast yet, but under the circumstances from where he was, he's posting times."
Clearly, this is just the start of Dressel's path to re-establish himself as the world's top swimmer after taking golds in the 100 fly, the 50 and 100 free and two relays at the Tokyo Olympics.
It was an ascent that took years.
He became the first swimmer since Michael Phelps to win seven gold medals at the 2017 worlds in Budapest, Hungary, and followed up with six golds and two relay silvers at the 2019 championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Then came the Olympic performance.
But after winning two golds and posting the second-fastest time in the 100 free prelims at last year's worlds in Budapest, Dressel unexpectedly withdrew from the meet, citing health reasons.
“When an athlete like that is going through some issues, it's a big, big deal, not only for him but for his family, for the program, for U.S. swimming,” Nesty said, declining to provide details about what transpired. “An athlete like that has a lot on his shoulders, and I wanted him to have everything removed from his shoulders. He needed to focus on him.”
Dressel finally returned to the pool in late February, Nesty said, gradually ramping up his schedule before his first competition at a minor meet in Atlanta in May.
At Indy, the lack of time in the pool showed as he struggled to finish races. His best showing was a third-place finish in the 50-meter butterfly, a non-Olympic event. He tied for fifth in the 100 fly and didn't advance to the main final in either the 50 or 100 free.
He's not expected to compete again until August and hopes to be back at full strength when the U.S. Olympic trials return to the IU Natatorium next summer.
And while his failure to make the American team will deprive fans of seeing one of the sport's most successful athletes at swimming’s second-most important event, Dressel's Olympic teammates, training partners and coaches were just happy to have him back on the pool deck.
Hey, it's progress.
"It's not right for me to talk about what happened, what state he was in, but I can tell you he's bounced back,” Nesty said. “He's happy and we're ready to go. Physically, he's good. Mentally, he's good. He's happy to start the grind to get his power back.”
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