After Dressel’s Disappointments, a 120-Year U.S. Men’s Swimming Streak Comes Down to One Race

The eight-time Olympic medalist missed the podium and failed to make the final in his best events on Friday, which means the American men have one final chance at an individual gold medal in Paris.

Dressel finished sixth in the 50 freestyle final and then failed to qualify 100 fly finals after winning gold in both events in Tokyo. / Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

PARIS — Caeleb Dressel stood in the mixed zone at La Défense Arena rehashing the carnage of his Friday night with the media. While doing so, he was in the unprecedented and unwanted position of peeking at a TV monitor showing the second semifinal of the 100-meter butterfly, wondering whether he was going to be bumped out of the eight-man final. 

In better times, Dressel didn’t have to scoreboard watch to know if he’d made a final. He’d never missed one in an individual Olympic event before, so the premise of leaving the pool with any doubt was a new and helpless experience.

“Does anyone know if I made it back?” He asked the reporters in front of him, knowing what the answer would be. “Probably ninth or tenth?”

Worse than that. The world-record holder in the event finished 13th.

“Tough day,” Dressel said when informed that he was out. “Tough day at the office.”

Tough week for Dressel, and all the American male swimmers. Very tough. Historically tough. Could get worse.

No pressure, Bobby Finke. But a 120-year Olympic streak is now riding on your shoulders this weekend.

Finke is the United States’ best hope in the 1,500-meter freestyle, the final men’s individual swimming event of the Paris Games. If the reigning Olympic champion in the event doesn’t win, the American men will go without an individual Olympic swimming gold medal for the first time since 1900. (The exception, of course, is the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which the U.S. boycotted.)

That’s the turn of the century. The last century.

The 1900 swimming competition consisted of six individual events, one being an obstacle course and another being an underwater race. The U.S. sent just one swimmer, and he failed to medal. Now there are 14 events, and the U.S. men are going to be 0-for-13 heading into the 1,500 final Sunday.

This would complete a disastrous City of Light Cycle of Suck for American men’s swimming, from Paris 1900 to Paris 2024. It’s not pretty.

Although his chance at an individual medal is over, Dressel will swim in the 400-meter medley relay on Sunday. / Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

The double shot of Dressel distress Friday night pushed the U.S. men to the brink. Dressel, winner of eight gold medals and the most accomplished American male since Michael Phelps retired in 2016, missed the podium in the 50 freestyle and then bombed the 100 fly semifinal less than an hour later.

Dressel was the gold medalist in both events in Tokyo three years ago. He’s still the world-record holder in the butterfly. He won both events last month at Olympic trails in Indianapolis. To see him like this Friday was jarring.

“A little bit heartbreaking,” Dressel said afterward, trying to smile through the pain. 

For a guy who went through a long mental health journey after abruptly withdrawing for World Championships in 2022, Dressel was trying to maintain a grasp on perspective while simultaneously processing a deep competitive disappointment. He’d crawled out of that hole two years ago and came back to perform well in Indy, leading to a general “Caeleb’s Back” vibe.

But the Indianapolis Dressel didn’t make the overseas flight here. He was just O.K. on the gold medal-winning 400 freestyle relay the first night of competition, then flamed out in the individual events Friday.

“Very obviously not my best work,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun, sincerely, [but] hasn’t been my best week, not going to shy away from that. But the racing has been really fun here. Walking out here to compete in the 100 fly, it’s special and I won’t forget that. I’d like to be quicker. Yeah, not my week.”

Dressel was in contention for bronze in the 50 free but appeared to be in between strokes at the end—a bad position to be in at the end of a sprint where every hundredth of a second matters. He chose to take an extra stroke over a longer, gliding finish and wound up sixth, missing bronze by .05.

Whether that shook him is unclear, but the Dressel who showed up for the 100 fly semi was not the same guy who had been the premier sprint butterflyer in the world from 2017 to ’21. Dressel wallowed to a 51.57—well behind the 50.58 he put up in prelims, and further behind the 50.10 he split on the mixed medley relay Friday morning or the 50.19 he recorded to win the event in Indy.

This was the fourth time a key veteran U.S. man stunningly cracked and missed a final. Backstroker Ryan Murphy, one of four team captains and a seven-time Olympic medalist, did not make it in the 200 backstroke. Individual medley specialist Chase Kalisz, the reigning Olympic champion in the 400 IM and silver medalist in 2016, also missed in that event. Backstroker Hunter Armstrong, who won eight medals in the previous two World Championships and swam a heroic relay leg last Saturday, flamed out in the 100 back.

There were some more predictable misses by younger members of the men’s squad making their first Olympic team. Chris Guiliano qualified in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles and missed the 16-man semis in two of them, finishing eighth in the third (the 100). Butterflyer Thomas Heilman, just 17, didn’t make a final in either the 100 or 200. Breaststroker Matt Fallon, the No. 3 seed in the 200, didn’t qualify for the top eight.

On and on it has gone. This was an American men’s team in transition, waiting for young stars to arrive and betting that the old stars could hang on, and neither has happened as well as hoped. Coming on the heels of a humbling performance at the 2023 Worlds, it’s fair to wonder whether some leadership jobs are on the line.

Even if Bobby Finke wins that 1,500 to avoid ignominious history, it doesn’t really change the tenor of the meet for the American men. The women have had many high points, even if they haven’t dominated the pool.

For Dressel, all is not yet lost. He and Murphy, among others, will be called on for a vital duty Sunday. On the line then: America’s forever undefeated streak in the 400 medley. That relay has never looked more vulnerable than it does now.

“I’ll do my part,” Dressel said. “I’ll do great on the relay.”

Dressel will, without a doubt, give that relay everything he has. So will his three teammates. But it’s a large, looming, ominous question of whether that will be enough.