The world’s fastest swimmer, Caeleb Dressel, spoke about his butterfly world record, and he opened up about areas for improvement. Thus far, Dressel has earned three gold medals at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in the men’s 100 meter freestyle, the 100 meter butterfly, and the 4×100 meter freestyle relay.
He has a career total of five Olympic gold medals. Dressel will be racing in two events tonight, the men’s 50 meter freestyle final and the men’s 4 × 100 meter medley relay final.
100 meter butterfly world record
Dressel obliterated his own world record in the men’s 100 meter butterfly final with a time of 49.45 seconds. “That was a really fun race to be a part of – really fun,” he said. “I’m sure it was fun to watch, I’m just excited for the sport. It was well executed – body wasn’t as good as it could have been, that is just the body I was given on this day. I felt better yesterday for the fly, but it’s fine. I knew what I had to do to execute, and it hurt.”
“It hurt really bad, but it’s fine, I knew what my race plan was and stuck to it and it got the job done, fortunately,” he said. “What a close race. Two of the fastest times in history – you don’t get that very often, so to be a part of that is very special. To be able to look back on that – Kristof [Milak] is a young kid. I am too. I guess I’m one of the old ones in the sport now, but the event is only going to get faster and I’m aware of that and it’s just exciting that it took a world record to win.”
When asked if he could have gone faster, Dressel responded, “I say that after every race – Kristof [Milak] could have gone faster, if he was standing right here, he would say the same thing. I think I’m speaking for everybody in this sport.”
“Every swim, you can always go faster. If not, if I ever have a swim where I say, ‘no, that’s it,’ then I’ll retire. Today, I could have gone faster. Last year, I could have gone faster. Next year, I am going to be saying the same thing. It’s never a perfect race but I executed it as well as I could have on this day. I probably could have found a couple of hundredths or a couple of tenths, but that was the time I was given today, and I executed it as well as I could have,” Dressel elaborated.
Men’s 50 meter freestyle semifinal
In addition, Dressel finished in first place in the men’s 50 meter freestyl semifinal with a time of 21.41 seconds. He advances to tonight’s 50 meter freestlye final along with Team USA teammate Michael Andrew.
Dressel’s 50 meter freestyle came roughly 45 minutes after his gold-medal win in the men’s 100 meter butterfly. Andrew clocked 21.67 seconds, which is two-tenths off his personal best of 21.46 seconds.
Should Andrew and Dressel both medal in the event, it would be the fifth time that two Americans share the podium in the men’s 50m freestyle. The feat happened in the 1988, 1992, 2000, and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
4×100 meter mixed medley relay final
Team USA finished in fifth place in the mixed 4×100 meter medley relay final with a time of 3:40.58.
“Mentally, it [his three races today] actually got a little easier each race, which is really weird to say,” Dressel reflected. “I was a little out of sorts in the ready room for the fly. The sport was a little more fun when no one knew my name, to be honest. I was a little shaky, it was kind of weird, I was a lot calmer for the 100 free. As I said, I knew what my race plan was, so no matter what my brain was trying to throw at me – ignore it, get in the water, and do my thing.”
“In the 50 [freestyle], I knew I had to get top eight, so that was a little bit of an easier feat than trying to win a gold medal there,” Dressel said. “Then, the relay. Relays are fun for me. I knew what my job was. I think if they were all standing here, none of us executed as well as we should have. The standard for Team USA is gold and fifth certainly doesn’t cut it.”
“For me, speaking on my part, I didn’t do my job, I wasn’t happy with my split. So next year, at Worlds, we’ll give it another go and put the pieces together again, so there’s a tough one right there, but we’ll get over it and move forward and I’m looking forward to it.”
Cali Condors
Dressel serves as Co-Captain of the Cali Condors swimming team in the International Swimming League (ISL), with Olympian Jason Lezak as the team’s General Manager. The Dors won the second season of the ISL.
To learn more about Caeleb Dressel, follow him on Instagram.
