In 2022, Caeleb Dressel was burnt out. The pursuit of perfection that had led to world records and Olympic medals had a dark side. So, for close to a year, the swimmer took a break—he worked on becoming a better person, changing his relationship with the sport, and, most importantly, being happy. Now, with a new outlook on life, a newborn son, and the Paris Olympics in view, Dressel is back in the pool because he loves it.
GQ caught up with the seven-time gold medalist after he helped cut the ribbon cotton ceremony of the grand opening of his sponsor Omega's new boutique in Tampa. He broke down what it was like to return to training after his break, his weakness for sweets, and how he structures his 3-a-day workouts.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
Caeleb Dressel: Well, time was definitely a blur during some moments with Meghan's pregnancy and certainly in the delivery room. There were moments that I could have sworn were a couple hours that were actually 15 minutes. I've been swimming since I was five and that's one of the standards you're judged upon—how quick you can do something. It's a very unbiased, strategic, and precise measurement.
The birth of my son has given me a different perspective. I’m definitely behind the blocks with a different mindset. I'm no longer racing for myself. I know I have a different set of eyes that are looking at me now. It's a pressure that I welcome.
I think you halfway answered it for me. It’s really just seeing how far I can take this. It's not about trying to be trying to be the best…whatever—or trying to go the fastest. I just like to train, and every result I've ever gotten is just a by-product of the training that I do. It’s just seeing how far I can take this. I’ve learned a lot about myself in this sport. There are certainly some mental blocks. There are certainly challenges that come, not only yearly, but weekly and even daily.
Whether it's with practice, weights, a nap or not getting enough sleep, or my diet. There's constant ways and routes I can take to look and improve upon myself in this sport. There’s plenty of challenges that it offers, and I think that's the main thing. I don't want an easy sport because that gets boring after a while—swimming is certainly not that.
I think it is a completely fair sport—that's one thing I love about it. There's a first place, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. You get your own lane. It's a very individual sport. I know there are relays, but really, your head is under water, and you don't get to talk to anybody. So it's completely fair, and I love finding new ways to just keep pushing, and it changes every year. I think just looking for and welcoming those new challenges is what makes me want to stay in the sport, stay hungry and just keep going year after year. But, every day is certainly not easy and I think that's the main thing—just welcoming those challenges and obstacles.
I had to see if this is something I wanted to continue to do. I was burnt out. There were some demons that I had created and some things that I needed to do differently in the sport. I needed to look at myself differently in the sport. I needed to welcome and appreciate myself more than just what the scoreboard said, and that was tough, man. I had done that for so many years and it was a tough transition. I was out of the water for nine months and I didn't know if I was going to come back. I missed it a whole lot, but I wasn't sure if this was something I wanted to continue to do because there are challenges with it.
Like I said, I do love them. I love what they have to offer, and I do learn a lot about myself. But, I was not in a healthy enough spot to welcome those challenges and to see the learning curve from it. I think the human element for any profession—not just athletes—is huge because at the end of the day, we are just humans. I might be very fast in a pool, but I live in a house. I love taking care of my chickens, walking my dog, and making jokes with my wife. We do all the same stuff that everybody else does. I just happen to be able to swim pretty quick in a pool.
I think everyone has treated me amazing. Everybody welcomed me back. It was nice to feel missed, to be quite honest, because I missed the sport. Just to be welcomed back by not only the water, but the media, my teammates, and everybody else on deck. It felt like a true community for me, and it made it that much easier just to get back and do what I love to do. I couldn't ask for a fairer welcoming back. I feel like I do offer the sport a lot and the sport has taught me a lot. I want to try to give back as much as I can. To feel that love from everybody was really special and I don't ever want to forget that.
I’ll say that 90 % of what I eat is extremely clean. Me and my wife have our own chickens that we get our eggs from. We have a cow that we butchered last year. So, not only trying to eat as clean as we can but raising the food that we're eating, which is a really special feeling. My wife has garden boxes as well. That kind of didn’t go so well when she was pregnant because I didn’t want her out in the sun, pulling weeds and tending to all of that.
We like eating super clean, and we just feel better when we do. Don't get me wrong—some days I need some candy. Some days I need a pizza. A lot of days I need a cheeseburger. It is in moderation, though. You can't have the switch just turned on 100% and just be 100% disciplined in every element of your life because you'll drive yourself crazy. So, 90% super clean and then 10%—I need my dirt. I think it's important for me and I end up burning it off anyways.
Our first year doing the garden boxes was last year. It was really trial-and-error to start with. We’ve got squash, zucchini, cucumber. Meghan was really in charge of running the garden boxes and she did a really good job until she got pregnant and had to drop it. It was great just going out to the boxes and Meghan picking out what she needed for dinner. She also had dill, oregano, rosemary, some chili peppers—because we like spicy.
It was really just as much as we could do, and we definitely were in over our heads because most of it died. But the stuff that didn’t, she would make dinner with it and it was just special. Having something that was grown on your property and put into a meal, cooked by someone you love and then enjoying that with them—I’ve never done that before, and it’s really special. With the chickens we have, they all have names, and they live in a big coop in the back of the property. Every morning, I eat their eggs and that’s something that I grew up with, so it’s not completely new. Doing it on my own and not under supervision of mom and dad—doing it with my wife and my son—it's a little scary because it's like a figure-it-out type of deal.
I've never owned cows before, but you just figure it out. It's a fun little challenge. That was one thing growing up—my parents were always open to us welcoming challenges, trying new things, trying new sports. Now, it’s the same with our household—just trying new things, seeing what works, and seeing what we enjoy. It’s pretty much a farm. It's been as much work as I want it to be. You can't do everything there—if I wanted to get everything done, I’d be working all day. It’s dropping some hay off to the cows every now and then and closing the chickens up at night so the foxes and raccoons don't get them.
I'll typically have five to six eggs and I usually do over medium because it cooks faster, and I want to eat quick after practice. I get most of my fruit in the morning, so it'll be blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. I might throw in a banana, and I'll usually have a bagel or toast with butter and honey for a little extra calories. We actually get honey from Meghan’s mom. She has some bees and has her own honey. If I'm still hungry, I'll go raid the pantry and see what else we got.
I don't eat too much for lunch just because it's right before my second practice and I don't like swimming on a full belly. So you better believe after my second practice of the day I come home pretty ravenous. I usually have a pre-dinner snack—that might be some pistachios or a little bit of leftovers from what we had for dinner the night before. With dinner, we eat a lot of seafood in our household. We do have a lot of meat from that that cow that we sent off. Last night, Meghan made salmon, so usually a big salmon fillet with some type of green. Meghan's an awesome cook and I lucked out with that. She's got family recipes from her great grandma that are handwritten and stored in the kitchen, and I get to enjoy all of it.
I try to avoid candy because I have a major sweet tooth and I don't let myself have it as often as I would like to because I don't need it and I know it's not good for me. Quite honestly, the challenge of saying no to candy and balancing my mind is more fun.
I absolutely love the Happy Cola gummies. I do like Reese’s a lot because I love peanut butter. Hot Tamales, man. They’re so good. Crumbl Cookies are so good. Key lime pie is probably one of my favorites ever. Now, that I’m talking out loud, I realized I probably named every category of sweets there is (laughs).
So typically, for a really tough day, I would be up at 5, get to the pool by 6. I’m in the water from 6 to 8 and that'll be typically just long aerobic session, where it's pretty much a lot of build work, a lot of increasing heart rate, and a lot heavier yardage. Right after that, I'll hit the weight room for about an hour and a half, and then I'll head home. We'll come back in the afternoon for more speed-based stuff. That’s lighter yardage but a lot faster. The heart rate's a lot higher, it's a lot more intense physically and that's when you're really getting up, racing your teammates and starting to boogie. I guess that would be three practices with the lift—that's one of the tougher days.