Olympic and World Champion Caeleb Dressel swam for Jason Lezak’s Cali Condors this past season on the International Swimming League. For Dressel, he knew racing against the top sprinters in the world would be great training, and that was a big reason he signed on to compete in the inaugural season. Dressel closed the season at the ISL Finale wining four individual events including the brutal skins race. In the video above Dressel breaks down his strategy for the skins race, and he does drop the word endurance, noting two minutes is not a lot of time to recovery between sprints when you’re swimming all-out.
Looking ahead, let’s play the prediction game way too early for 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials.
DRESSEL US OLYMPIC TRIALS EVENT SCHEDULE: I think Dressel swims his stock schedule in Omaha, 50-100 free, and 100 fly. He swims the 200 free, but only in prelims. I also think he’ll test 200 IM. If he’s on, I could see him swimming the semi and final at Olympic Trials.
DRESSEL US OLYMPIC TRIALS 100m FREE: I’m only getting specific about one race this far out, 100m free. 100m fly was his best event at the 2019 World Championships this past summer, popping the 49.50 world record. I think 100m free will matter more to him in Omaha. He got too close to the 100m free world record this past summer, Cesar Ceilo’s supers-suited 46.91 from the 2009 World Champs in Rome. While Dressel’s best taper will certainly be at the 2020 Olympic Games, he’s going to race almost fully rested at U.S. Trials. I don’t think he’ll take any chances.
Dressel’s 2019 World Championship 100m free — 46.96
My 100m free U.S. Olympic Trials Dressel prediction — 46.84
But who cares what I think. What do you think?
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I think Dressel v Chalmers will be the race of the Olympics.
Assuming Dressel makes it through the US trials in the 100 free (which is not to be taken for granted, as incredible as it sounds) I am glad I’m neither American nor Australian and I can just sit back, relax and enjoy that incredible race in Tokyo. No disrespect to anyone, but I can’t recall another instance where two such super-talented swimmers were both young and at the top of their game in the 100 free at the Olympics, at least in my time. 1992 Barcelona, Biondi was not the same as 4 years before. Perhaps the Popov-Hall feud in Atlanta is the closest thing, but I always thought Popov had the edge over Hall in the 100. Here, it’s… Read more »
Adrian V Magnussen in 2012? Unless you mean with super close PB’s prior to the games. In which, Adrian’s 48.0 was not very close to Magnussen’s 47.1.
You can call that final close only after the fact. Going into the final, Magnussen was the super-favorite. Adrian did not have a single individual medal to his name at WCs or Olympics up to that day.
Wasn’t there talk after the world champs that Dressel really wanted to be in the USA 4×200 Team? I think his 4th event will be the 200fs.
One thing is for certain, I havent been more excited for a match-up than Chalmers vs Dressel II at Tokyo. What a race it will be!
He will swim the 200 free in the last meet before trials and decide based on that performance. I would vote no on him swimming it unless he can break 1:45 in Tokyo
All we need is a Solid 1:45 relay split from him
It may take a 47.2 to make the team in the 100, which is crazy. It would be a huge shame if Dressel didn’t make it because he wasn’t fully tapered.
As for the 200 free, I don’t think he should swim it or be on the relay. I think that it would drain him too much for the rest of the races at trials and the Olympics. Since he doesn’t really train for the 200 free, it seems that resting kind of hurts his 200 free compared to his in season. He was 1:47 in season then 1:48 high when resting last summer.
I assume he has big endorsement deals and doesn’t need to swim a lot of events to fund his Pro career.
….money at his level matters…but not as much as you’d think. Dressel has it, the deals are done. He’s reaching a secure level of financial comfort. Performance matters now in 2020 for the history books. All elites want to make their mark. For Dressel, he’s an Olympic Champ from ’16, but now he has a chance to be an Icon, which I define as 5 medals or more in one OGs.
He can’t really take any chances with his taper at trials. IMO, he needs to be almost fully rested for the meet to make sure he makes it in the 100 free. I could see Held, Apple, and Rooney being right around 47.3, and while that’s .4 off Caeleb’s best, it’s really not that much room to play with. Let’s not forget the almost disastrous Nationals in 2018.
I agree that he’ll be walking a tight rope, but also, motorcycle crashes…
200 free, especially meters, hurts a lot, takes a lot out of you. While Dressel seems to perform better as the 8-day schedule progresses and he may want to swim all three 200 frees, I think it’s safer to drop a fast 200 free in prelims and push off.
Agree, approach the prelims like its finals and post a time to be considered for the relay.
You seem to think he’s going to be on full taper for trials if he’s going a 46.84. Correct?
I think Dressel will be 90-99% tapered. I think Troy knows how to put the base in, and reboot for a short period and re-taper for big meet after trials. I think Dressel is just a performer too, getting it done when it counts.
***I also think he has so much base-work, a 2nd taper is really just more rest he thought he didn’t need….but after years and years of work, you can push a taper out 6-8 weeks. Back in ’80/early 90s I dropped to 4k 8 weeks out, 3k 6 weeks out, 2k two weeks out. That last week, I’d just warm up. If I felt odd, I’d skip days that last week and hot-tub-it.
wanted to jog my memory on some other instances of something like this happening and a couple of things I didn’t remember:
– Phelps didn’t even compete in the 100 free at trials in ’04, but still got the spot in the A final. from what I can tell, this was his first time on that relay too. Not totally different than what dressel’s situation would be coming into the ’20 games for the 4×2. He did compete in the prelims in ’08, qualified second, and then bailed, having secured his spot with the prelim swim that may not have even been necessary. (side note, adrian had to swim off to get into the A final that year, where… Read more »