Olympic swim champ Caeleb Dressel fails to qualify for world championships
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Caeleb Dressel won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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INDIANAPOLIS – Seven-gold Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel failed to qualify for this month’s World Aquatics Championships in Japan, after more disappointing results at the United States National Championships in Indianapolis on Saturday.
In his final chance to make the US team, the 26-year-old finished tied for 22nd in the preliminaries of the 50m freestyle, 1.07 seconds behind the leader.
That capped a week that saw him finish third in the 50m butterfly, tied for fifth in the 100m fly and 19th in the 100m freestyle – all short of what was needed to make the worlds from July 14 to 30 in Fukuoka.
Dressel’s struggles were not wholly unexpected, as he has not competed in a major meet since abruptly pulling out of the world championships in Budapest last summer, citing an unspecified health issue.
“He’s very happy where he’s at now,” University of Florida head coach Anthony Nesty was quoted as saying by SwimSwam on Saturday.
“Now we have a starting point and we can go from there. Obviously, he wanted to do better, but for us, it’s just posting times that he could improve upon. This is the first time I’ve seen him happy swimming in a long time, and a happy athlete is a fast athlete.
“Obviously, he’s not fast yet, but under the circumstances where he’s at, he did some good times.”
Nesty said Dressel is capable of getting off to excellent starts but struggles to close races.
“He lacks power,” Nesty said. “He’s mentally where he needs to be, physically, not yet.
“But his strokes are good. He’s felt good in all his strokes... now we just need to get a full year of training and weights in and he’ll be okay.”
Team USA will hope Dressel, who won two golds in Budapest, can regain the form that saw him win five titles at the Tokyo Olympics before the Paris Games next summer.
They will likely have no shortage of stars, though.
Katie Ledecky closed out the championships on a high note on Saturday, winning the 1,500m free in an impressive 15min 29.64sec to book a fourth individual event in Japan.
The 26-year-old, who set the world record of 15:20.48 in the same Indianapolis Natatorium pool in 2018, posted the sixth-fastest time ever and now owns the top 15.
After checking the scoreboard, the seven-gold Olympic champion pounded the water in delight, having cleared the taste of an unsatisfying time in her 400m free win on Friday.
“It’s amazing what a morning off can do,” Ledecky beamed. “I just wanted to finish on a good note.
“I really don’t like ending a meet with a bad swim, so I just really wanted to have a great swim tonight.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve been under 15:30 since the pandemic, so I’m really happy with that.” REUTERS, AFP
