Caeleb Remel Dressel (born August 16, 1996) is an American competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events.

[6] Dressel is the third of four children; his three siblings, one brother and two sisters, plus his father were all competitive swimmers setting records and earning honors across the high school and university levels.

[...] I'm trying to race really tough, and they were the better team, and it's as simple as that.He led off a 50-yard free relay with a time of 19.82, becoming the first swimmer under 16 years old to break 20 seconds.

[25][26] With his performance, Dressel also became the fastest freshman in the 50 yard freestyle in the history of the NCAA and the second-fastest American in the event, only behind Nathan Adrian.

[35][36] Dressel's performances leading up to and at the 2016 US Olympic Trials earned him recognition as America's best young sprinter by Sports Illustrated and CBS News.

[42][48] Dressel also swam freestyle in the heats of the 4×100 meter medley relay, and won his second gold medal of the 2016 Olympic Games when the finals relay of Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Cody Miller (breaststroke), Michael Phelps (butterfly), and Nathan Adrian (freestyle) placed first in Olympic record time.

[41][49] He swam a time of 47.74 seconds for the freestyle leg of the prelims relay consisting of him, David Plummer (backstroke), Kevin Cordes (breaststroke), and Tom Shields (butterfly).

At the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Dressel won seven gold medals and set numerous American records.

[3] On the first day of competition, July 23, Dressel set the American record in the 50 meter butterfly with a time of 22.76, topping the semifinals.

Along with teammates Matt Grevers, Lilly King, and Simone Manuel, the American team won gold in a new world-record time of 3:38.56.

[53] That time broke the record set earlier in the day by Ryan Murphy, Kevin Cordes, Kelsi Worrell, and Mallory Comerford.

At the 2018 Southeastern Conference, SEC, Swimming and Diving Championships in College Station, Texas, in February, Dressel lowered his best time in the 100 yard breaststroke from a 51.88 to a 50.03, which broke the former American, US Open, and NCAA records set by Kevin Cordes in 2014 at 50.04 by one hundredth of a second.

On day 2 of the competition, March 22, 2018, Dressel broke the NCAA, American, and US Open records in the 50 yard freestyle thrice.

[76] After the meet, reports surfaced that Dressel had missed two weeks of training in June while recovering from a motorcycle accident, which had perhaps hampered his performance and prevented him for equaling his times from the previous year.

[36][87] At the 2019 World Aquatics Championships held in Gwangju, South Korea, he first won a gold as part of the team in men's 4×100 meter freestyle relay.

[93] In the final day of the Championships, Dressel helped win a silver medal in the men's 4×100 meter medley relay.

[96] In 2019 he was a member of the inaugural International Swimming League representing the Cali Condors, who finished third place in the final match in Las Vegas, Nevada in December.

[110] On day four of competition, Wednesday June 16, 2021, Dressel ranked 5th out of all prelims heats in the 100 meter freestyle swimming a 48.25 and advancing to the semifinals.

[119][120] On the same day in the semifinals, he improved further on his US Open record dropping it to a 49.76, earning Dressel the top 3 times in history in the event.

[121][122] In the morning of day seven, Dressel swam a 21.29 in the prelims heats of the 50 meter freestyle, taking first, breaking the Championships record, and advancing to the semifinals.

[130] Dressel was selected as one of two male USA swimming captains for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, held in August 2021, along with Ryan Murphy.

[139] People and Parade magazines highlighted Dressel and his wife, Meghan, for their tearful reaction to him winning the 100 meter freestyle in Olympic record time, with his wife's eruption of emotion leading People to dub Meghan as their pick for the "Olympic gold medal for most celebratory spouse watching from halfway around the world in a pandemic".

[146] Later on day seven, Dressel swam three hundredths of a second off from setting a new Olympic record in the prelims of the 50 meter freestyle with his time of 21.32 and advanced to the semifinals ranked first.

[150][151] His world record and gold medal win in the 100 meter butterfly was chosen by Olympics.com as their number three moment in swimming at the 2020 Olympic Games.

[160] In the 2021 International Swimming League, Dressel was selected early on in the draft process as a protected swimmer to compete for the Cali Condors again.

[163][164] In match six, Dressel swam a personal best time of 1:51.14 in the 200 meter individual medley, finishing second only behind Daiya Seto of the Tokyo Frog Kings.

[178] On the first day of the final match, Dressel helped set new Americas and American records in the 4×100 meter medley relay with Coleman Stewart (backstroke), Nic Fink (breaststroke), and Justin Ress (freestyle), splitting a time of 49.01 seconds for the butterfly leg of the relay to help achieve a time of 3:19.64.

[184] On the fourth day of the world championships, Dressel swam the 100 meter freestyle in the prelims heats to achieve the second-fastest seed going into the semifinals.

[229] In 2013, Dressel started a romantic relationship with his future wife, Meghan, a child counselor and former breaststroker who competed collegiately for Florida State University, and in 2019 they were engaged.

[11][12][230] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, planning the wedding was one way Dressel stayed busy during quarantine, as was hiking a 60-mile portion of the Appalachian Trail.