Caeleb Dressel

Your whole life boils down to a moment that will take 20-40 seconds. How crazy is that? And it's every four years. I wouldn't tell myself that during the meet, but it's terrifying. A lot of it boils down to a very precise moment in the universe, and that just happens to be the Olympics.

I enjoy the sport, I enjoy the challenge that it brings and it certainly does bring that for me and it's not an easy one.

The Olympics are different, I'll admit that now and stop lying to myself.

For me to have my little stamp on the sport, of course it's special.

I don't know if you'll really get to know me unless you're close to me.

I want to have a diploma to hang on my wall. Even if I don't use it, I can say I graduated from UF.

I can get the physical exercise done with practice and staying in shape. But you've got to sharpen the mental side.

I've had a couple breakdowns.

I have to manage my emotions.

I know my name is thrown out there and I could care less about it. It is something that comes with the sport when you are on top of the podium.

I was nervous before races. Every race was not perfect... Every morning when I woke up the first words weren't always, 'Oh, I'm so excited.'

I can be proud of every swim, every effort I put in the water, every mental approach to every single race.

But just improving each day, that's just the ultimate goal from now until I'm no longer on this earth.

I know this stuff really does sound stupid, but this is one of the reasons why I think I've seen some success in this sport - the tiny little habits. I really consider being successful in this sport as just dropping pennies in the bank.

I would certainly love to be playing Mario Kart up until the wee hours, but sometimes I've just got to call it quits.

This sport was a lot more fun when no one knew my name, to be honest.

People want to dream up this big, giant goal without putting the stepping stones along the way, and for me, that's what gets you to that giant goal.

I think greatness is found within mundanity, those boring little ticks throughout the day.

I didn't want to learn the butterfly because it's hard. I got it right away, but I didn't want to do it.

I love meatloaf so much.

Practice does take a lot out of me mentally because I have to be on it for every stroke, every turn, every breakout. Anything I do, I want to be as focused as I can, so by the time practice is done, I'm kind of physically and mentally fried.

I'm kind of like a horse: I just kind of eat throughout the day, so I'm not ever hungry.

I never eat a lot before I get in the water because I don't want to, you know.

I wanted swimming to be something that I loved, something that I was motivated to do for myself.

I swear every day I love it more and more. If you want to go 47.0 in a 100 free and you're 47.1, you have all these years behind you and it comes down to a 47-second race. It can be so brutal sometimes, but that's the part I like about it.

I've got pimples on my face, I'm losing some hair.

I hope the feeling of standing up on the podium winning gold will never get old.

I don't come to meets to count medals. It's not what I do. It's just really for me.

I always say a prayer before the blocks - it helps calm me down.

I don't mind the sun at all, I like it.

My favorite part of the Olympics was the flag raising and seeing my family there.

I don't want to be some hotshot. I'm not about that.

The whole podium time was like it was in slow motion. I was watching the flag go up realizing I'm part of one of the greatest countries on earth.

I'm trying to show that it doesn't matter where you are from, even a little town like Green Cove. You can make it.

I probably sound like a broken record every time I do a race, but I always look for the bad. That's just kind of how I work.

I want these medals to be for everyone, not just myself.

It can be a scary thought to do something that's never been done before.

I feel like I fell short in Rio.

I don't think anyone will ever be able to perfect the sport, and that's kind of what I love about it. You're always chasing something.

I knew I was going to have to come with fire, passion and pride in every single race.

It takes a lot of people. I would not swim if it was just me. If I didn't have any teammates, I couldn't stay in a pool for two hours, twice a day, nine times a week. I can't do that. And I'm fine with admitting that. I couldn't do this by myself.

If I try to be fast then I'm no good, so it's better just to shut everything off and let instinct take over.

I just tried to find a fine line between muscling in and staying relaxed.

In the gym, you get out what you put in. There's no room for excuses, for taking shortcuts or giving half effort.

Strength training is an important part of every athlete's training program, but for me it's become almost like a sanctuary.

My lifting routine is designed to develop and maintain explosive strength off the block, so it mainly includes cleans, power cleans, jerks and snatches.

We play a lot of Nintendo games, a lot of Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, a few different card games, really just stuff so we can stay loose and get your mind off of swimming before going into the meet with full focus.

There's parts during the meet where it's not the greatest feeling - the stress that you feel, the pressure I put on myself.

I've been doing the sport since I was 5 years old. And if I don't have support behind me, it's just a dream and it will not be able to turn into reality.

You can't reach perfection unless you reach zero seconds - it's just the constant chase for perfection.