Caeleb Dressel Breaks Down in Tears After Disappointing Paris Olympics Performances

Team USA's Caeleb Dressel broke down in tears, letting it all out Friday evening after he finished his final individual event of the Paris Olympics — without even close to the results he had been hoping for.

The decorated American missed chances to defend two of his Olympic titles from three years ago in Tokyo, and he broke down. Dressel sobbed for several minutes, the finality and disappointment of the moment hitting him. Hard.

The emotional moment came shortly after his sixth-place showing in the 50-meter freestyle, and then failing to reach the final in the 100 butterfly.

“Obviously it’s not my best work,” Dressel said. “I had a lot of fun though, I can honestly say that. It hasn’t been my best week, I don’t think I need to shy away from that, but the racing’s been really fun here.”

Bouncing along moments before his freestyle race, Dressel made his way onto the pool deck when his name was introduced looking confident as ever. He raised his arms and side-shuffled to reach his spot in Lane 2.

Dressel set Olympic records while winning both the 50 free and 100 fly — the latter also a world record — among his five golds at the Tokyo Games, but touched the wall in 21.61 for sixth in the free Thursday. His fly semifinal was a shocking 13th-fastest.

Dressel hung over the lane rope after the free, taking his time leaving the water. He insists he won't let these disappointing races ruin his stay in France.

“Just seeing the moment for what it is instead of relying on just the times,” Dressel said. “I’m at the Olympic Games. I won’t forget that. I’d like to be performing better. I’m not. I train to go faster than the times I’m going, I know that. It’s tough. It’s a little heartbreaking, a little heartbreaking for sure.”

The 27-year-old Dressel has been cheered on by wife Meghan and their five-month-old son, August, sporting oversized protective headphones in the deafening noise of La Defense Arena.

The baby did get to witness Dad bring home one gold medal. Dressel anchored the winning 4x100-meter freestyle foursome as the Americans beat out the rival Australians and Chinese on Saturday night in Day 1 of Olympic swimming competition.

That marked his eighth career gold. In Tokyo, he also won the 100 free and 4x100 medley relay after capturing golds in the two relays at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, too.

Now, Dressel is going to enjoy this last stretch in Paris as best he can. After all, Dressel might not have been here at all if he hadn’t taken a prolonged break from swimming in 2022 to work on his mental health and regain his love for the sport.

He turns 28 on Aug. 16, and now there’s plenty more work and self-care to be done. It has made such a difference for Dressel.

“Nope, I wouldn’t be at this meet, I probably would have been done swimming a long time ago, to be honest,” he said. “It’s still a work in progress, so I have years ahead of me I’m looking to, but a lot went into this just to be here.”

Dressel’s Disappointing Performances in Paris

Caeleb Dressel, the defending Olympic gold medalist in both the 50-m freestyle and 100-m butterfly, broke down in tears Friday at the Paris Summer Olympics after a pair of disappointing swims in each event.

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

“It's very obviously not my best work, but I had really a lot of fun. It hasn't been the best week, don't need to shy away from that,” he told reporters right before he learned that he wouldn’t be racing in another individual event.

“I’d like to be quicker, obviously, but it’s not my week and that’s alright. I was a good bit off my best right there, and felt like it. A lot went into this, just to be here, and I can get into that after the meet,” he said, before asking “Anyone know if I made it?” as the other semifinal race concluded and the fastest eight swimmers who qualified for the final were reported. “Probably ninth or tenth; anyone know? Didn’t make it? Tough day. Tough day at the office.” NBC cameras then captured Dressel breaking down in tears about missing the opportunity to race in another individual event at the Paris Games.

Mental Health Break

Dressel is the first to admit that he’s a very different man, and swimmer, than the one who dominated all of his races in Tokyo. At those Games, Dressel earned gold in every race he entered—three individual first place finishes and two relay titles.

Even with that success, however, racing, and the competitiveness required to remain at the top, was becoming a toxic burden for the three-time Olympian. 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 own mental health.

For a while, it wasn’t clear whether Dressel would even race again, let alone compete in another 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 to return to competitive swim racing.

Juggling parenthood with elite training wouldn’t seem like an ideal combination, but Dressel has found a way to make it work. “It’s definitely a different routine, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad,” he told oympics.com in July. A training partner of Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke in Florida, Dressel didn’t start focusing in earnest on the Paris Olympics until 2023. He began building back his racing form and entered his first meet in December of 2023, gradually dropping times in order to qualify for several events at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this summer, including the 50-m freestyle, the 100-m butterfly and the 4x100-m freestyle relay, in which he won gold on the first day of racing at the Paris Olympics.