Caeleb Dressel will not compete in the 2023 World Championships

Caeleb Dressel is arguably the best American swimmer since Michael Phelps. However, despite his outstanding performance at the 2020 Olympic Games, he was unable to qualify for the 2023 World Championships. He had won five gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo two years ago.

After a disappointing injury that forced Caeleb Dressel to withdraw from sporting activities, he returned in style to elite competition for the first time in nearly a year. He was proud of the effort he put forth, and he went home content despite missing out on the "A" final in two of his four events. Dressel made his first statement to the public since pulling out of last year's worlds in Budapest, Hungary, due to health concerns:

"I'm proud of myself for the results, believe it or not," he said. "I know it's shocking. I'm not used to swimming in the 'C' finals, so it's definitely something different. But I wouldn't have changed anything about this year, wouldn't change anything about the swim meet."

Caeleb Dressel in the Olympics

Fans will be deprived of seeing one of the sport's most successful athletes compete at the second-most important swimming competition as he did not qualify for the American team. He finished in a tie for 22nd place in the preliminary competition for the 50-meter freestyle. Caeleb Dressel was 1.07 seconds behind the race's winner. The Olympic gold medalist spoke in an interview with reporters after his race, in which he said that he had missed competing in his sport while he was away from it.

"I missed it almost every day. I missed the little things in the sport: blowing bubbles, my toes on the grip tape, chlorine. Believe it or not, I hate chlorine. I missed the chlorine, I missed the dry skin, I missed every part of it," he said. "And that’s how I knew I was ready to get back: because I didn’t need to, I wanted to."

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American swimmer Katie Ledecky and University of Florida football coach Anthony Nesty support Caeleb Dressel

Anthony Nesty is present at the US swimming nationals.

After the conclusion of the competition, some of Caeleb Dressel's friends, teammates, training partners, and instructors showed their support for Dressel's composure and inner peace in not qualifying for the 2023 World Championship. Anthony Nesty, the head coach of the University of Florida football team, spoke with members of the media on Saturday afternoon following the end of day five of the preliminary heats at the 2023 U.S National Championships.

Nesty spoke of Dressel, saying that:

"He’s very happy where he’s at now. Now we have a starting point, and we can go from there. Obviously he wanted to do better, but for us, it’s just posting times that he could improve upon."

He further said:

"This is the first time I’ve seen him happy swimming in a long time, and a happy athlete is a fast athlete. Obviously, he’s not fast yet, but under the circumstances where he’s at, he did some good times."

Nesty also believes in his statement that the Olympic swimmer's inability to finish the race is because of his absence in the training room and weight loss. Nesty said in the interview:

"He lacks power," Nesty said. "He’s mentally where he needs to be, physically, not yet. But his strokes are good. He’s felt good in all his strokes, so that’s a good thing.

"[Dressel] has always done a good job taking care of his body first and foremost, and when you take care of your body, you will get longevity in the spot. He looks pretty good physically, and now we just need to get a full year of training and weights in and he’ll be okay."

Katie Ledecky wins her first gold at the Tokyo Olympic

Katie Ledecky praised her Florida colleague Caeleb Dressel after she won the 1500-meter freestyle event that she dominated and took first place in. She said,

"I think he's in a good spot. I don't want to speak for him or how he feels about his races, but just what we see on the deck every day in practise, what we saw here, he seems happy, and that's what we all care about."