Caeleb Dressel of the US was visibly emotional on camera after missing the Olympic final of the men’s 100 butterfly. Dressel was shown for several minutes crying and hugging Dr. Katie Edenfield after the race in a moment of humanity for one of the most decorated Olympians in history.
Edenfield has been a team physician with USA Swimming since 2021. She is based out of the University of Florida, where Dressel attended college and currently trains at under coach Anthony Nesty. She is board certified in Family Medicine and holds a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine. She is a clinical associate professor in Florida’s Department of Community Health & Family Medicine.
She has been part of the USA Swimming staff at the World Junior Championships, Pan American Games, and World Championships.
She is also a team physician for the athletics department at the University of Florida, where Dressel has trained since 2014.
After several minutes of Edenfield and Dressel hugging and talking, Lindsay Mintenko, the National Team Director of USA Swimming walks over and moves them to an area out of sight of the camera.
Dressel smiled upon originally seeing his time. The smiles eventually turned into tears as he and Edenfield hugged while Dressel was able to cry openly.
Edenfield said this in an interview last week with Med Page Today about her experiences with mental health:
Personally, I am a primary care physician so I have a good amount of training and experience with mental health. I make sure to check in with my athletes and connect them to resources that can help with whatever needs they have. USA Swimming employs a clinician as manager of Mental Health and Emotional Wellness whom (sic) serves as a valued resource to all of the USA Swimming Junior National Team and National Team athletes.
The US Olympic medical staff also includes mental health professionals.
Dressel’s return from the 2022 World Championships is still noteworthy as well as his emotion today. Dressel withdrew from competition in the middle of the 2022 World Championships due to medical reasons and did not compete in the 100 butterfly there. “I knew I was in a spot where it wasn’t healthy,” Dressel said back in May of this year. “I got to that point where I was like if I don’t break a World Record at whatever event, then my career is a waste.”
Dressel swam a time of a 51.57 for 13th in the men’s 100 butterfly. It took a 51.08 to earn spot in finals, a time that Dressel was notably under in prelims as he swam a 50.83 this morning. He notably had the final of the 50 freestyle about 30 minutes before he swam in the first semifinal of the men’s 100 butterfly.
His prelims time of a 50.83 was his 3rd fastest 100 butterfly since returning to competition in May 2023. He was faster at US Trials with a 50.19 in finals and a 50.79 in semifinals. He also placed 6th earlier in the session in the 50 free final.
Dressel has 8 Olympic medals, all gold, including a gold earlier this week as part of the American 400 free relay. He has a chance for another medal on Saturday in the American mixed medley relay, although he won’t actually be swimming. He anchored the prelims relay on Friday morning, and he will collect a medal if the finals group finishes in the top three on Saturday – where they are expected to do so.
Dressel is also expected to swim a leg of the American men’s 400 medley relay to conclude the meet on Sunday.
Caeleb is a good man. Cheering up and congratulating his opponents while dying inside is not something you see many other athletes do
Blasting an all out 50 free really cuts deep and empties the tank, especially as we get older. That double, so close together, is way more difficult than it looks on paper. Going 50 point just isn’t happening if you aren’t fresh, I don’t care who you are. If he’d had another hour in between races he would have been fine.
Its a 50. Maybe iif he had trained the year before.
Should not have been in the am relay. Should have picked 50 fr or 100 fly. Too old and big to do both. He is amazing and one of the greatest ever in the sport. When I was swimming if I accomplished 1/100 of what he did I would have been ecstatic. But unfortunately swimming (and life) is performance-expectations=satisfaction. I can’t count the number of times I was in tears after races. My swimming daughter also in tears countless times. It was so relatable. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the summer country club meet, ymca meet, college conference championships or the Olympics. If you had an expectation and didn’t meet it, you just crumble. Swimming is a brutal sport… Read more »
too big and old? Josh liendo is bigger than him, trains with him, and kicked his butt in both. Hes only 27 not 60
Dang the author of this had to “sic” the dr instead of cutting off the quote prior to her grammatical error. That was cold but funny
What people don’t seem to remember is that dude had a 6 month old at home.
I remember when I was a new parent. I straight up don’t remember those months of my life. The sleep deprivation and shock to the routine is incredible.
How can anyone have ideal training leading up to the Olympics given that?
His wife is a stay at home mom and swimming is a lot less than 40 hrs of work each week. Come on, now we are just making excuses
Unless he’s sleeping in a different building, he’s not getting a full straight 8 hours of sleep, regardless of what his wife is doing. That’s no knock on the family life, it’s just the reality of the situation.
He only swims. He can take naps between sessions. Excuses
And yet 20 hours a week of elite swimming and weight training is significantly more exhausting than a 40 hour week desk job. You also make it sound as if he does absolutely nothing to take care of his son when it’s palpable how much he cares about his family; I sincerely doubt Meghan is the only one taking care of their son.
How is anybody criticizing NBC? You guys are totally whiffing the context, the situational influence. NBC ran a very long piece with Caeleb during primetime Friday night. It was a candid self appraisal of Caeleb as his own worst self critic. He described his thoughts post Tokyo, that he was hardly content, believing he should have broken additional records. He talked about entering therapy shortly thereafter and having weekly sessions ever since.
Caeleb invited that perspective. NBC knew they would run it Friday night. So no kidding any type of footage along those lines is potentially valuable and going to be filmed. On the actual primetime telecast they showed very little of it, but did include several quotes from Dressel… Read more »
It’s not just Caleb having an off meet, most of the men’s team has been “off”, the men haven’t won a single individual gold medal, I don’t know if that’s ever happened. Let the historians check that. I hope Bobby Finke wins the 1500; he’ll be in the mix. But go down the men’s roster and there were too many swimmers who under performed. I don’t know why, maybe the trials were too close to the Olympics. The pool is no excuse, everyone swam in it. I heard accommodations were substandard for elite athletes. The most of the team is swimming like it’s under prepared.
There will be a lot of finger pointing after the games, I’m not sure… Read more »
Athletes have to actually peak at Trials to make the team. Other countries the true top is quite separated from the rest of the elites, so truly peaking for qualification isn’t necessary.
Nice to see some compassion from (most) commenters in here.
But I can only imagine the truly horrible things that would have been said about Kaylee (or Cam) if they had missed their final and burst into tears on deck…
Totally
I don’t remember us doing that to Thorpe.