Caeleb Dressel on his Olympics, USA swimming's future and wanting to touch grass

PARIS — Team USA swimming star Caeleb Dressel added two gold medals and a silver from the Paris Olympics to his hardware haul, bringing his career total to 10 Olympic medals with nine golds. 

But the 27-year-old three-time Olympian acknowledges it wasn’t his best personal performance, finishing sixth in the 50-meter freestyle and, as the world record holder, not advancing to the 100-meter butterfly finals.

He also recognized that Team USA as a whole could have done better after winning just one men’s individual gold medal, thanks to Bobby Finke in the 1,500-meter freestyle, the last individual event of the meet. The American squad as a whole, however, still finished at the top of the swimming medal standings with eight golds and 28 total.

With swimming over, USA TODAY Sports sat down with Dressel on Tuesday to look back at his Games, discuss the future of American swimming, having his son, August, in attendance and what’s next for him, including looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Ten medals at this point: nine, gold, one silver. How would you rate your performance at these Olympics?

I think, as with everybody, there was ups and downs. I had some major disappointments. I don't want to shy away from it, especially with my individual events. But proud of the past couple years. Coming off Tokyo, it's been tough. So to be able to go from ‘22 to ‘23, take a very long break, and then not only make it back on the hardest team to qualify for, but win some hardware here, it was a special swim meet. Wish I would have been a little bit quicker in my individuals, but that's what my body had that week, and I gotta be proud of that. Yeah, I really wouldn't have changed much.

Along those lines on a bigger picture for Team USA and the men's swimmers, was it difficult to see a lack of individual golds?

We know what the goal is when we go to worlds or Olympics: We want to be the best swim team here. And it's not that we had the worst week we've ever had. There's other countries that are also very good in the water, but yeah, we had opportunities that we didn't capitalize on. It wasn't our best week in the water, but I don't think one Olympic cycle is going to define us. Bobby bailed us out there at the end with the gold, so we're all good. 

You’ve mentioned before that other countries are getting more competitive and catching up to Team USA. Where does American swimming go from here?

I think it’s now and until the end of time, we're going to be the ones with the target on our back. It's exciting for the sport that it's grown that much and it's become that global. It's always been global, but to make it that close — it's not that we're any less dominant. It's just the wealth has been spread, which is exactly what you want. You want it to be competitive. 

All of my best swims have been in my closest races. So even looking forward to the next Olympic cycle with U.S. versus China in that [men’s] medley relay, that was the first time in the history [of the relay] that we’ve ever lost. That is going to happen at some point, and it's unfortunate that we were the guys, but I wouldn't want any other group. We have our heads held high. We all split great. We just got beat. So yeah, I think it's good for not only motivation, but for the sport as a whole and for people watching. That was a very exciting race. That's what you want. It sucks. I'm gonna be biased. I want USA to win every event, but I also like seeing close races. …

That wasn't our best work, and we're still walking away with the total medal count, the gold medal count, still number one. So I can only imagine what it looks like when we're on our A game. 

It’s all about perspective, right? And the general American standard versus an individual's?

I feel like it's easy to lose track of what these Games actually are. There's very few occasions where the whole world comes together, most of them bad. So this is one of the good ones, maybe the only good one. So to be a part of that, of racing the best people in the world from every single country, and if you can get your hand on the wall first, ideally, I think everyone would agree, [it’s special]. …

If you can walk away with five, six, seven, eight golds, awesome. But one bronze or a fourth place or making the final might mean just as much to someone, not only from a smaller country, from America. You don't know what everyone's story is. So I think that's why the Games are so special, is you see all these stories. And you see the memes coming out, and you see the funny photos. The best one from this was the Turkish shooter. I'm sure you've seen that. We see it in the village. It's so funny. It's not always about who wins the gold medals.

What was it like being at your first Olympics as a dad? Do you think August is going to imprint any of this?

No, I don't even think he was awake for my races. But I think the special part was for a sport that has meant so much for me for 22 years, to be able to bring him into those moments with me, to be able to hold him on deck and for the medals here — gold, silver, it doesn't really matter what they represent — I know my son got to watch me win those. … And he can take it and ding it up, bring it to show-and-tell, if that's still a thing nowadays. 

Are you going to take a break after this? Are you looking ahead to 2028?

We're not looking ahead at ‘28, not yet. But I'm gonna take some time off for sure. I haven't been to the beach in a while. That sounds really good. Actually, the main thing I want to do when I get home [to Florida] — I have not been barefoot in grass in like a month and a half. I know that sounds crazy, but we were at Day 6 of the swim meet, and I walked outside, looked over the balcony, I was like, “I have not touched grass in a very long time.” So I think that'll be the first thing I do. And then the beach sounds really nice. 

You literally want to touch grass.

Yes, yes. I'm craving it. It's weird. It's not something I thought I would miss until my body's like, “Well, we haven't done this in a very long time.” Yeah, I've just been surrounded by concrete for the past month.