PARIS — Caeleb Dressel had been there before. Exactly there. Just in a different role, at the start of a journey that came full circle Saturday.
Eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Dressel was standing on the top step of the medal podium as a member of the United States’ gold medal-winning 400-meter freestyle relay. It was his first Olympic gold, and he couldn’t keep the tears from falling. Michael Phelps, who had won approximately a thousand gold medals to that point, stood next to Dressel laughing and rubbing the 19-year-old’s head.
Saturday night here, with the kind of poignancy the Olympics tends to produce, Dressel was the beaming veteran soaking up the joy of an eighth gold medal across three different Summer Games. And there was relay mate Hunter Armstrong—the surprising hero of the night—next to him, breaking down, choking up, shedding tears. This technically was Armstrong’s second career gold medal, but it was his first time standing on the podium (the other gold was as a relay alternate in 2021, which means it was delivered to him in a box days after the event). It was now Dressel’s turn to take the Phelps elder statesman role, gently shoving a forearm into Armstong’s side and laughing.
“You can’t explain this moment until you’re on the podium watching the flag go up,” Dressel said. “It was really special seeing that. I remember how it was for me, my first gold, I lost it. It’s special being part of that with these guys.”
This was a powerful moment for all four American men, who won their country’s first gold of the Paris Olympics and helped refute the narrative that U.S. swimming is in decline. They all came to this race in varying stages of their careers, with Dressel having traveled the most publicly challenging road.
Thirteen months ago to the day, it seemed highly improbable that Dressel would be back in this place, adding another layer to his legacy as one of the all-time great American Olympians. He’d finished 29th in the 100 freestyle at U.S. national championships, a humbling performance for the American record holder in the event. He was attempting to come back from a breakdown at the 2022 World Championships, which he abruptly left after winning two events with what was described as a mental health issue.
The journey back went through that performance last summer, when Dressel at last returned to high-level competition but wasn’t up to making the U.S. team for the ’23 worlds. But that laid the foundation for the summer of 2024, in which Dressel made the Olympic team in two individual events and this relay.
But to win this gold medal, Dressel needed huge performances from his relay mates. After years of leading off American relays, the coaches moved Dressel to the anchor for this one and it worked out, with the help of his friends.
Dressel’s anchor leg in the morning prelims was uninspiring—his split was a 48.19-second 100 freestyle and he was bypassed by Australian star Kyle Chalmers. The coaches kept him on the finals relay and in the anchor position, and Dressel made it his job to ensure that his teammates were properly jacked up for this race.
Dressel personally exhorted each of his teammates—Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano and Armstrong—behind the blocks before the race. His intensity was visible, perhaps because he knew he needed Olympic newcomers Alexy and Guiliano to get the U.S. out fast.
Alexy, a 21-year-old from New Jersey who goes to school at Cal, is a towering talent who stands 6'8". But he was thrust in against some front-loaded relays from other nations, including China leading off with world-record holder Pan Zhanle. Pan split a sizzling 46.92 seconds, but Alexy had the U.S. in second with a 47.67-second split.
Thirty-five minutes before the night session began at La Défense Arena, Alexy stood by himself, silent and stock still, on the pool deck. The usual bustle of warmups was going on around him, swimmers and coaches coming and going, as fans filed into the arena. Alexy seemed oblivious to it all, standing there in a USA T-shirt and sweatpants, locking in on the task at hand.
“It was an honor,” Alexy said of being the lead-off swimmer. “I was really excited when I was asked to lead off the relay for Team USA.”
Guiliano followed Alexy into the water. His place on the relay seemed impossible if viewed through a 2022 lens. He’d arrived at Notre Dame as a moderate-level recruit, choosing the school in part because it was a dream destination for his Catholic Pennsylvania family. Guiliano recalls his official visit to the school, when he was on a campus tour and his dad, Joe, was walking across the school grounds separately. Chris’ tour happened to run into Joe, and Chris saw that his father had tears in his eyes.
Last year, when Notre Dame changed coaches and brought in Chris Lindauer, he tapped into Guiliano’s talent and turned him into a rising star. Guiliano made the world championship team in 2023, then carried the confidence from that into a huge NCAA season. He came to Olympic trials primed, and made the team in three events.
But there isn’t much to prepare a guy for his first Olympic swim, and Guiliano shot off the blocks for the second leg of that relay like he was on fire. He screamed through the first 50 meters in 21.70 seconds, which was easily the fastest 50 of anyone in the race for any team. He paid for it a bit on the back half, but his 47.33 split moved the U.S. into the lead.
That paved the way for Armstrong to throw down the monster split that broke the race open. He dropped a scorching 46.75-second leg, one of the fastest in American history, giving Dressel a lead of nearly two full seconds.
Armstrong’s path through the sport resembled Guiliano’s. He’d never been on a U.S. national team until blowing up at the 2021 Olympic trials, making it as a backstroker. At the USA Swimming Golden Goggles awards months after the Tokyo Games, Armstrong was still enough of a national team newbie that he was a bit of a wallflower at the gala.
Now he’s an indispensable part of the team. After breaking through, he’s kept on rising in stature. That includes becoming an elite freestyle sprinter in addition to his backstroke work, and he’s never been better than in the third relay leg Saturday night.
“I would give up my body for these boys,” Armstrong said later, after singing the national anthem with a single tear rolling down his right cheek.
Staked to a huge lead, Dressel was better at night than he was in the morning—good enough to hold off Chalmers and give the U.S. gold by more than a second. He’s still not on the world-beater form of 2021, nor as fast as he was in Indianapolis at Trials, but Dressel has a recent habit of going faster as meets progress.
“Extremely proud of them,” Dressel said of his relay mates. “Made my job easy.”
The first night of swimming finals was less glorious for the rest of Team USA, but that was not a shock. On paper, this looked like a medal of each hue kind of night, and that’s exactly how it played out. The anticipated mixed bag for the U.S. started with sizzling butterfly semifinals by the tandem of Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske. Then legend Katie Ledecky won a bronze medal in the 400 freestyle, easily outdistanced by Australian world-record holder Ariarne Titmus and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh.
For Ledecky, finishing third behind two fellow superstars was probably less disappointing than the time—she did not break four minutes for the first time in a major international final. “I wanted to be a little faster,” Ledecky said. “But I can’t complain with the medal.”
The silver medal came in the women’s 400 freestyle relay, with the back half of the lineup turning in the heroics. The Americans were in fourth after leadoff swimmer Kate Douglass and second leg Walsh, then Huske turned on the jets to split a 52.06—second-fastest of anyone in the race—to move the U.S. to second.
That didn’t last long, though. It appeared that American anchor Simone Manuel wouldn’t be able to hold on to silver, as China surged past on the anchor leg. But Manuel did what she’s done so often, digging in on the final meters and windmilling one final arm stroke to out-touch China for silver by a tenth of a second. The time of 3:30.20 broke the American record.
“It just feels good to be back here, honestly,” said Manuel, who like Dressel went through her own period of several months away from swimming, questioning whether she wanted to keep going. “I didn’t know if I would ever be performing at this level again. I’m just in a happier and healthier place.”
Dressel’s happiness was vividly on display after the medal ceremony, when he tearfully kissed his wife, Meghan, and held his baby boy, August. Of all the life changes he’s been through, this is the most profound. It may not be a coincidence that his return to swimming at a gold-medal level comes so closely after the birth of August in February.
“It’s really special,” Dressel said. “I’m checking little boxes I never would have thought to create.”
There are more boxes to try to check in the days ahead. But this was a huge one—for all four members of the American relay team, and for U.S. Swimming as a whole.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dressel Lifts Young Relay Team to U.S.’s First Olympic Gold in Paris.
