Caeleb Dressel Uses Swimsuit, Monkey Suit to Put Together Memorable Trials Meet as He Turns To Worlds
On the first full night of the meet, Caeleb Dressel was giving high-fives, talking to kids up in the stands.
“Hey, they were chirping at me first,” Dressel said jokingly.
The last night of the meet was Halloween and Dressel walked out to the blocks for his last race of the 2026 USA Swimming Short Course World Championship Trials in a full monkey suit.
“The monkey suit came from my son. I asked him what he wanted me to be for Halloween and that’s what he said,” Dressel said.
It was a refreshing week of smiles and fun for Dressel, who has not always found the sport to be that way in recent years.
“I think I learned a lot about myself this meet,” he said. “I want to have fun with it. I still want to swim fast and my years are limited, I know that. But I want to cherish these moments a little more.”
One of those moments came on Friday when Jack Alexy broke the world record in the 100 free.
Dressel immediately swam over the lane lines to get to Alexy and told the mild-mannered Alexy to sit on the lane line and show some emotion.
“I was excited for him. That was my genuine reaction,” Dressel said. “I could never get under 45 and I told Jack when he first went under 47, that was the biggest mental barrier for me. For him to crush the world record like that (was awesome).”
Oh, and Dressel swam pretty well this week.
On Thursday, he pulled a triple, taking third in the 100 fly (48.57), winning the 50 free (20.57) and winning the 100 IM in a U.S. Open record time of 50.34.
“The first day was a good test for myself, handling a triple and not having a good morning session and coming back and not letting it defeat me – and I was able to just keep it rolling from there,” he said.
On Friday, Dressel was third in the 100 free (45.65) and on Saturday, he was second in the 50 butterfly (21.62), giving him a few swims at the upcoming world championships in Beijing.
“I probably could have used more SCM training before coming into this. I would have liked to have made 100 fly,” Dressel said. “I learned a lot heading into meets for next year. I feel strong and technically I feel very sound. The meet got better each day and I got more confident.”
Dressel swam at the Virginia Pro Am meet, but that was his first taste of SCM in a long time.
“I didn’t have any SCM until that meet at Virginia. So I was watching ISL videos of where my stroke count was. If you saw my 50 fly, you will see that I haven’t figured that out for SCM. I have some things to work on for worlds,” he said.
Having an international meet at the halfway point of an Olympic cycle that is SCM is something the athletes are very happy about.
“It is perfect heading into next year with worlds coming up. It is kind of a baby step toward that. I haven’t done a meet like this since Paris,” Caeleb Dressel said. “It doesn’t have the same pressure, but it has the same competition. So, I am really excited for that. I just need to sharpen things up and put on some more speed.”
- Day One Recap
- Day Two Prelims Recap
- Day Two Men’s Recap
- Day Two Women’s Recap
- Day Three Prelims Recap
- Day Three Men’s Recap
- Live Results