Caeleb Dressel cries after disappointing swim in Paris

Waeleb Dressel, the current Olympic gold medalist in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, broke down in tears on Friday at the Paris Summer Olympics after two disappointing swims in each event.

First, he missed the podium in the 50m freestyle, finishing sixth. Then, less than an hour later, he finished fifth in the semi-final heat of the 100m butterfly, a good two seconds behind the world record he set at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Obviously it’s not my best work, but I had a lot of fun. It wasn’t the best week, I don’t need to run away from that,” he told reporters shortly before being told he wouldn’t do it. be competing in another individual event.

“I would like to be faster, obviously, but it’s not my week and that’s okay. I was a little off my best at that moment and I felt like it. A lot has gone into it, just to be here, and I can get into it later of the meeting,” he said, before asking: “Does anyone know if I made it?” when the other semi-final race ended and the eight fastest swimmers who qualified for the final were reported. “Probably ninth or tenth; does anyone know? Didn’t make it? Tough day. Tough day at the office.” NBC cameras captured Dressel crying over missing the opportunity to run in another individual event at the Paris Games.

Dressel is the first to admit that he is a very different man and swimmer than the one who dominated all his races in Tokyo. At these Games, Dressel won gold in every race she entered – three individual first-place finishes and two relay titles.

Even with this success, however, racing and the competitiveness required to stay on top were becoming a toxic burden for the three-time Olympic champion. In 2022, Dressel suddenly withdrew from the World Championships, citing health reasons. He later clarified that he needed time away from the sport for his mental health.

For a time, it was unclear whether Dressel would compete again, much less compete in other Olympics. He took eight to nine months off from swimming, and in February 2024, he became a father to son, August, with wife Meghan, whom he credits with helping him return to competitive swimming racing.

Juggling fatherhood with elite training wouldn’t seem like an ideal combination, but Dressel found a way to make it work. “It’s definitely a different routine, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad,” he told oympics.com in July. A training partner of Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke in Florida, Dressel only began to seriously focus on the Paris Olympics in 2023. He began to regain his running form and entered his first competition in December 2023, gradually decreasing his times to qualified for several events at the US Olympic Trials earlier this summer, including the 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay, in which she won gold on the first day of racing at the Paris Olympics.

Dressel has one more race at these Summer Games – the mixed medley relay on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, after acknowledging the difficult day, Dressel had one final message: “Let’s get ready for the relay.”