Seven-time Olympic Gold Medalist Caeleb Dressel on Mental Health, Doping in Sports and the Paris Games

It was only 100 meters. It took less than 50 seconds, 47.02 to be exact. But it changed everything. When Caeleb Dressel touched the wall six-tenths of a second ahead of Kyle Chalmers, the decorated Australian swimmer, in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, he solidified his place at the apex of the sport. “His legacy is set as one of the greatest, if not the greatest American sprinter in history,” says Rowdy Gaines, the veteran NBC Sports analyst who won his own gold medal in the event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “And that’s saying a lot.” In America, which has dominated swimming on the world stage for generations, the names that transcend the sport, with some notable exceptions (Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky), have been sprinters who won the 100 free. It requires speed but also strength and superhuman endurance. The start is critical, and so is the turn at the wall. If a swimmer is too long in the turn, it is virtually impossible to make up critical seconds in the second leg of the course. Speedo brief in nylon and Lycra Xtra Life fiber; Omega Seamaster Diver “Paris 2024” watch

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