Caeleb Dressel was named the heir to Michael Phelps after his retirement. He won his first gold of the Tokyo Olympics Sunday.
Former Florida men’s swimming star Caeleb Dressel won his first gold medal and the Gators’ third medal overall in the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. He helped the United States defend its gold medal in the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay.
He started the relay for the Red, White and Blue where he grabbed the lead in the first 15 meters of his opening leg. Dressel finished his swim in 47.29 seconds then his teammates Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker and Zach Apple sealed the win for the U.S with a time of 3:08.97 and a 1.14-second margin of victory over Italy and Australia.
“It feels great, we knew there was a huge target on our backs,” he said in an interview after the race, according to The Alligator. “We’re never going to doubt ourselves, that’s how Team USA works.”
Dressel also won two gold medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay and in the men’s 4×100 meter medley relay.
On Saturday, fellow Gators Kieran Smith and Natalie Hinds earned bronze medals in the men’s 400-meter freestyle and in the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay, respectively.
Dressel returns to the pool again for the men’s 100-meter freestyle prelims Monday. Then he will team up again for the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay, men’s 100-meter butterfly, men’s 50-meter freestyle and the new men’s 4×100 meter mixed medley relay later in the games.
Caeleb Dressel was named the heir to Michael Phelps after his retirement. He won his first gold of the Tokyo Olympics Sunday.
Former Florida men’s swimming star Caeleb Dressel won his first gold medal and the Gators’ third medal overall in the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. He helped the United States defend its gold medal in the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay.
He started the relay for the Red, White and Blue where he grabbed the lead in the first 15 meters of his opening leg. Dressel finished his swim in 47.29 seconds then his teammates Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker and Zach Apple sealed the win for the U.S with a time of 3:08.97 and a 1.14-second margin of victory over Italy and Australia.
“It feels great, we knew there was a huge target on our backs,” he said in an interview after the race, according to The Alligator. “We’re never going to doubt ourselves, that’s how Team USA works.”
Dressel also won two gold medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay and in the men’s 4×100 meter medley relay.
On Saturday, fellow Gators Kieran Smith and Natalie Hinds earned bronze medals in the men’s 400-meter freestyle and in the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay, respectively.
Dressel returns to the pool again for the men’s 100-meter freestyle prelims Monday. Then he will team up again for the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay, men’s 100-meter butterfly, men’s 50-meter freestyle and the new men’s 4×100 meter mixed medley relay later in the games.
At 27 years old, American swimmer Natalie Hinds made her first Olympic team after initially retiring in 2016.
After a disappointing performance at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Natalie Hinds’ swimming career came to an abrupt and devastating end. Or so she thought. She quietly waved goodbye to the sport, graduated from Florida and moved to Atlanta for an internship in digital sports media.
But her love for swimming never completely evaporated.
And now, five years after retiring and letting go of her Olympic dream, the 27-year-old swimmer has mounted an incredible comeback, qualifying for her first Games as one of the oldest first-time American Olympic swimmers in history.
“I still have moments where I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m at [training] camp to go to the Olympics,'” Hinds recently told For The Win. “Like, this is so crazy. And you really prepare for this moment, but you really can’t fully prepare for the actual moment.”
At the Rio trials in 2016, she finished 40th in the 100-meter freestyle — her highest finish in three events and a far distance away from the top-2 swimmers who qualified for the 2016 Games. (She also competed in the 2012 trials.)
“I was just disappointed, and I felt like I really just let distractions get to me throughout that past year,” Hinds said. “I kind of just didn’t want to swim anymore. I wasn’t swimming fast, and it wasn’t enjoyable for me at the time. So that just kind of equals being miserable.”
A 20-time All-American Florida Gator, she was embarrassed and didn’t announce her departure from the pool. So the then-22-year-old Midland, Texas native began working for Turner Sports and eventually Bleacher Report, while coaching swimming as a second job. And that was about as close as she got to watching swimming or keeping up with the sport on an elite level “because it was just still painful.”
But something changed for her as she watched the 2018 U.S. nationals.
“I think it just took me seeing how much fun they were having at nationals to start to get the wheels turning like, ‘Is that something that I’d want to do?'” Hinds said. “I did a lot of soul-searching before I decided that I was going to give this a try.”
Hinds tested herself at first to see if she could consistently get up at 5 a.m. for an early workout at the pool and have the drive to keep going. By Fall 2018, at 24 years old, she was training with Athens Bulldog Swim Club under Georgia Bulldogs coach Jack Bauerle and competed in her first meet that December.
But like her exit from the sport two years before, Hinds didn’t tell anyone she was attempting a comeback. She said she worried about announcing her return and swimming poorly again, so she decided to mostly keep it quiet — part of her efforts to grow as a person and athlete, limiting outside distractions and pressure to focus purely on herself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jd_IoY3keQ
And now, Hinds made her first Olympic team as one of the oldest swimmers on Team USA and the second-oldest member of the American women’s team competing in the pool, behind 31-year-old four-time Olympian Allison Schmitt. (Overall, marathon swimmer Ashley Twichell is the oldest first-time Olympic swimmer at 31, per USA Swimming, and she’ll swim the open-water 10K at the Games.)
With a time of 53.84, Hinds finished fourth in the 100 freestyle, which was strong enough to qualify her for the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team and bring her remarkable comeback story full circle. She dropped nearly three seconds off her time — an eternity in sprints — compared to the 2016 trials.
“I’m a completely different swimmer, ” Hinds said.
“You learned about yourself when you’re not swimming all the time,” she continued. “A mental break for me was really good. It allowed me to reset and just fall in love with the sport again because you obviously don’t want to do something you don’t love or that you’re not having fun doing.”
The opening heats for the 4×100 free relay will close Saturday night’s lineup at the Tokyo Aquatics Center (about 7:40 a.m. ET), and the final is set for Sunday morning (about 10:45 p.m. ET Saturday).
Abbey Weitzeil, Erika Brown, Olivia Smoliga and Natalie Hinds celebrate at the medal ceremony for the 100 freestyle Olympic Trials in June. (Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
Since her swimming comeback, Hinds said she’s much more focused on nutrition and recovery. She’s mindful of her physical and mental health and said she her emphasis on visualization has alleviated some pressure and helped her when she’s behind the blocks ready to race. Shutting out social media ahead of Olympic Trials in June was also key. She now listens to audio books and began weaving “as a way to cope with the anxiety,” which she then turned into a side business, Loominary Design, last year.
Hinds’ new approach to her training is working for her now that she’s in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, and some on the team see her as a natural leader, despite being an Olympic rookie.
“I’ve gotten to know Natalie over the last few years, and she’s an awesome young person,” said Team USA’s women’s coach Greg Meehan, who also coaches at Stanford. “Fiercely competitive, and to see her in that moment at trials make her first Olympic team was really special. …
“She has this energy, and it makes everybody around comfortable. And so when you when you take that personal setting and bring it over to the pool, or you add to the competitive piece once we’re outside of training and actually go into competition, we are really blessed that she’s here with us.”
Simone Manuel and Natalie Hinds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
In 2015, Manuel, Neal and Hinds finished 1-2-3 in the 100-yard free, respectively, becoming the first Black swimmers to sweep an event at NCAA championships in what Hinds described as “a turning point” for her. She began working to create experiences for Black people and people of color interested in swimming and elite levels of the sport through speaking engagements, free swim lessons and collaborations with USA Swimming and Team BLAC — the Black Leadership in Aquatics Coalition, which was formed in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd.
Hinds said she’s the only Black swimmer on Georgia’s pro team, and she and her white peers have had uncomfortable conversations about racism in and outside of swimming. Her efforts to talk about racism in swimming and help diversify the sport have been aided by her white teammates, she said, though she acknowledged other swimmers of color might not feel similarly.
“Me making the Olympics is really cool, personally,” Hinds said. “But it also is an amazing win for the Black community and the minority community because I’m the fourth [American] Black female [swimmer] to make the Olympic swim team. And as amazing as that is, it’s really sad also.
“So it’s just important that I’m always representing a larger group of people and doing what I can to help, so there’s more people that come after me. And hopefully they can see me and be like, ‘Wow, she literally was living a completely different life and decided to come back.'”
Hinds’ return to the pool after retiring is an example for swimmers in college or their 20s to keep pushing, Meehan said. While many first-time Olympic swimmers for Team USA are in their teens and early 20s — there are 11 teenagers on the U.S. Olympic swim team this summer — Hinds proves that doesn’t always have to be the case.
“Obviously, [Hinds is a] fantastic human being,” said Olympic swimmer Lilly King. “I love just being around her and getting to know her more and more each day. But I think it just goes to show that this sport isn’t just for young girls, which is what it was even just 10 years ago. You can look back and find a different way of training and really make the best out of it. You just have to be determined to do it.”
Still, when Hinds hit the wall in the 100 free at Olympic Trials and saw her fourth-place finish, the reality of her Olympic dream coming true didn’t immediately sink in, she said. She didn’t realize she was going to the Tokyo Games until after the medal ceremony when she returned to the warm-down pool.
It was at the end of competition for the night, and no one was really around her, she said. It was quiet, and when she finally had a moment to herself, it hit her.
“In a matter of 10 seconds, I had gone through two and a half years of feelings,” Hinds said. “So it was a very overwhelming feeling, and I was not really able to stand. I just needed a moment to breathe through it and like accept that I’m really proud of myself.
“I felt very grateful — just very grateful that it was me who made this team, and I was grateful that I was able to leave [no] stone unturned. And it worked out for me.”
Members of the Gator Nation — both current and alumni — vied for international athletic immortality this summer in Tokyo over the weekend.
Welcome back from a weekend filled with U.S. Olympic Trials action as members of the Gator Nation — both current and alumni — vie for international athletic immortality this summer in Tokyo. While the track and field team still has not earned a qualifier, the men’s team has three members heading across the Pacific while a former women’s team swimmer earned her first Olympic bid. Here is a look at the roundup from the weekend.
