By: Qinwei Wu

After a mental break from swimming, Caeleb Dressel, a seven-time Olympic champion, realized how much he had missed the sport.

Dressel missed small and simple things, like the feel of his toes on the starting blocks and blowing bubbles under the water. “I missed every part of it,” Dressel said. He even came to miss chlorine and dry skin after being in the water for so long.

Dressel won the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle events at the Tokyo Olympics and holds the American record for it, but his preliminary swims for those events were too slow to compete for the championship final. His best result in the four events was third place for the 50-meter butterfly, which wasn’t sufficient enough to earn him a spot in the next world championships.

Currently, Dressel’s goal is to get back in shape in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He acknowledges that it would take a long time for him to regain his form but he knows that his mental health is what’s more important.

“The easiest way to put it, my body kept score. There were a lot of things I shoved down and all came boiling up, so I didn’t really have a choice”, Dressel said. He had stated that stepping away from the sport was necessary.

Recently, many other professional athletes have come to admit the mental health obstacles that can come with their sports. Swimmers such as Michael Phelps and Lydia Jacoby admitted they have experienced depression during their careers. Tennis player Naomi Osaka and gymnast Simone Biles have both taken a break from their sports to focus on their mental health.

Dressel began working out again with three practices a week in late February, and not long after, in May, he started training eight times a week. Dressel said during the time he lost his strength and fitness, he had gained some peace.