Caeleb Dressel just qualified for his second Olympics, and his first since becoming a megastar in his sport. But he still feels like that 15-year-old kid, the youngest male swimmer at the 2012 Olympic Trials, where he also watched finals from the nosebleeds.
“I got to swim in the same pool as Ryan [Lochte],” nine years ago, Dressel said last week. “I got to swim in the same warm-up lane as Michael [Phelps].”
Now Dressel, after an unconventional teenage ascent, is the man turning heads in U.S. swimming. Phelps retired five years ago.