Caeleb Dressel exclusive: How the Olympic swimming champion is re-imagining the 'critic mentality' - and finding joy in the chaos of parenthood
Caeleb Dressel sounds like an athlete - and person - with plenty of life experience behind him.
The 27-year-old is a seven-time Olympic champion in swimming, but is facing perhaps one of the biggest challenges of his career as he arrives at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis this week (15 June) a year into a comeback that has been anything but smooth waters.
"I feel like I've learned a lot about myself through the sport," Dressel tells the Olympics.com podcast in a new exclusive interview out Wednesday (12 June).
"I have challenges and obstacles every single day, whether it be from practice or at a swim meet or just a tough week, a tough month or a tough year of training," he added. "So I think that's the most exciting part... finding out who I really am."
Who Dressel "really is" continues to be an athlete who wants to push his own boundaries, and the next week will show that more than ever, having left the sport for much of a year between mid-2022 and May of last year. He's 12 months into a comeback that he hopes will include next month's Olympic Games Paris 2024, which would be his third Olympic berth.
"At a disciplinary level, I'm having fun with the sport, seeing how far I can push myself physically as well as mentally," Dressel said, having become a father in February to baby August. "That's the exciting part about swimming: I get my own lane, see how far I can push myself... and I've been enjoying it this year. It's been a really, really fun year for me."
Caeleb Dressel: Getting comfortable with his inner critic - and fatherhood
It was at the World Championships in June of 2022 - nearly two years ago to the day - that Dressel withdrew mid-event, first citing health reasons and later clarifying he needed to step away from the sport for some time for his mental health.
The Olympic champion at Tokyo 2020 in 2021 in the men's 50m and 100m freestyle as well as the 100m butterfly, Dressel didn't get in a pool for some nine months before making his way back in 2023, competing for the first time a year after being out.
Long seen as the American man who would take the swimming baton from the great Michael Phelps, Dressel has re-imagined his relationship to his own inner critic, and says that conversation is much more of an open dialogue these days.
"I think it's more so [been] befriending that side of me and being more comfortable when the critic does come out," he said. "I think it's just building that relationship and seeing him as a partner because he does a really great job of getting me through some tough practices and some tough swim meets and races.
"[It's about] having a nicer dialogue in my head," Dressel continued. "But yeah, I respect that side of me, certainly. [But] it certainly helps having more of a balance with the critic mentality."
Part of that process has been the birth of August. Dressel's wife, Meghan, has taught the swimmer that "sometimes you just have to ditch the game plan," he explained.
"We go with Plan B, C or D... or all the way down the alphabet," Dressel said in their parenting approach with August. "We read books and we were as prepared as we could be, but... I think Meghan and I just work together to try our best to figure out what August needs - he can't talk [yet]."
"I think adapting to him and not just being super set in stone with our plan and, 'This is what we're going to do,'" Dressel added of their learnings. "Everyone's figuring each other out."
'I don't take that word lightly'
Having come onto the U.S. swimming scene in the era of Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian and other top stars, Dressel represents an old guard for a team that continues to crank out world class talent.
But for the Florida native it's about a commitment to the team that doesn't take on any special titles - no matter who you are.
"I mean, I just view myself as someone on the team," he said when asked about a leadership role. "I don't think there needs to be any extra titles for anybody on the team. You know, we're all in the same boat for a reason. I don't look at anybody different. I hope anybody wouldn't look at me any different.
He continued: "I feel very comfortable with that leadership role, whatever you want to call it. If people want to come to me as a teammate, I want to call it that... If people want to come to me as a teammate, because that's how I see everybody. I don't think that word lightly. And if I can offer them advice or anything, or if they want to watch me swim underwater or watch some of my videos on YouTube, that is fine. At the end of the day, I'm still just a teammate.
And if you step back with Dressel, seeing his time away, choice to return and still push himself towards greatness, he's seeing it all now as a great process.
One he appears to be enjoying, too.
"I'm a student of the sport; I'm still trying to figure stuff out," he said. "So yeah, I guess to answer the question: I feel very comfortable [being a leader]."