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.”
Team USA swimmer Caeleb Dressel was left in tears after a pair of stunning finishes in his two individual events at the Paris Olympics Friday.
Dressel went into the 50-meter freestyle event looking to repeat his gold medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics.
But it wasn't meant to be as Dressel finished 6th in the event won by Australia's Cameron McEvoy.
A short time later, the heartache continued for Dressel as he placed fifth in his heat and was not fast enough to qualify for the 100m butterfly final, another event he won gold in at the Tokyo Games.
Moments after being eliminated, Dressel was seen in tears on the side of the pool as he was consoled by coaches.
The Paris Games began with a gold for Dressel and Team USA in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, where Dressel was the anchor.
He still may compete in the 4x100 mixed medley relay and men's 4x100 medley relay events in Paris.
With his five gold medals in Tokyo and two others in Rio in 2016, Dressel now has eight golds, five of those in relay events.
Dressel placed sixth in the men’s 50-meter freestyle final, an event he set an Olympic record for in Tokyo.
Then, less than an hour later, Dressel missed the final for the 100-meter butterfly. At the Summer Games in 2021, his gold medal-winning time of 49.45 seconds set an Olympic and world record, which still stands.
“It was very obviously not my best work,” Dressel said in an interview after the races, per The Athletic. “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 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.”
After the losses, Dressel was visibly crying on the pool deck. After giving someone a long hug, he was filmed wiping his eyes, which were stained red.
“So sad to see the tears from Caeleb Dressel. These athletes work so hard for these moments and it has to be devastating to not bring your best when it matters the most,” one viewer wrote on X.
“If they could get the camera off of Caeleb Dressel while he falls apart here, that’d be great. That was devastating to watch,” another wrote.
After a few minutes, Dressel moved out of view of cameras.
Online, people expressed gratitude for the Olympian's accomplishments.
“Cheers for the coach who helped get Caeleb Dressel to some privacy. Disappointment is hard. I hope he knows how much the US is still SO proud of him,” one person said.
“Say what you will about the cameraman filming #CalebDressel at the #Olympics, but as a mom to 3 boys, it’s a great example to show that even grown men can have emotions, disappointment, and cry. Hope his wife got to him and gave him a hug from all of us watching,” another viewer wrote.
Dressel could swim in two more events in Paris: the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay final, set for Aug. 3, and the men’s 4x100 medley relay.
In the mixed medley, Team USA finished in first in its preliminary heat Friday, led by Regan Smith swimming backstroke, Charlie Swanson swimming breaststroke, Dressel swimming butterfly, and Abbey Weitzeil swimming freestyle. The preliminary heat for the men's medley relay is set for Aug. 3.
So far in Paris, Dressel has won one medal: gold for the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
The Olympian has eight medals total, all of them gold.
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.
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.
Dressel has one more race this Summer Games—the mixed medley relay on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters Friday after acknowledging the tough day, Dressel had one final message: “Let’s get ready for the relay.”
The Florida native, who turns 28 next month, finished sixth in the 50m freestyle final before coming in 13th in the 100m butterfly semi-finals after winning gold in both events three years ago in Tokyo. After finishing both races within the span of roughly 40 minutes, Dressel could be seen in tears off to the side of the pool, embracing a member of Team USA’s swimming staff.
“It was very obviously not my best work,” Dressel said. “But the racing has been really fun here. Walking out for 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, that’s all right.
“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.”
The road to Dressel’s third Olympics has been anything but straightforward. In 2022, less than a year after his five-gold breakout in Tokyo, he withdrew in the middle of the world championships and took eight months away from the pool to address his mental health.
When he returned at the next year’s US national championships, Dressel didn’t come anywhere close to qualifying for worlds, failing to make the A-final in either sprint freestyle race.
Having been deemed the successor to Michael Phelps since racking up a record-tying seven golds at the 2017 world championships, Dressel admitted to struggling with the weight of expectations. “I get it, trying to find the next guy,” Dressel said at last month’s US Olympic trials. “But I have said multiple times I’m not Michael, at all, and I’m fine with admitting that. I think I’m pretty damn good at what I do. 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.”
Australia’s Cameron McEvoy took gold in the 50m free, becoming the first Australian man to win gold at these Olympics.
It’s hasn’t all been bad for Dressel. On Saturday, he anchored the Americans to a third consecutive 4x100m freestyle title on the opening night of the swimming program to win his eighth medal at the Summer Games, all of them gold, extending one of the great records in Olympic history.
Only two other men or women, Usain Bolt and Ray Ewry, have won as many Olympic medals without any silver or bronze.
Earlier on a gruelling Friday, Dressel raced for Team USA in the mixed 4x100-meter medley relay heats. That will give him another shot at his ninth career Olympic gold when the final goes off on Saturday night in the west Paris suburbs.
Australia’s Kaylee McCown chased down Regan Smith of the United States to win the 100m backstroke in a time of 2min 3.73min, breaking Missy Franklin’s 12-year-old Olympic record set at the London Games.
Smith touched in 2min 4.26sec for the fifth silver medal of her career, to go along with a single bronze.
“If I had gotten a silver medal and I had been a second slower, I think I would have been really disappointed in myself because that wasn’t putting my best foot forward. That wasn’t what I was capable of doing,” Smith said. “That’s one of my fastest times ever. I think I really gave Kaylee a run for it and I made things really close and exciting. So I’m thrilled with it.”
