CAELEB DRESSEL touched the wall in his final final - the 50-meter freestyle - at the US Olympic Swimming Trials and watched on the big screen, No. 1 flashing next to his name. He smiled, and immediately walked up to second-place finisher Michael Andrew and hugged him.
Veteran Nathan Adrian, who finished third and missed the cut to make his fourth Olympic Games spot, swam to Dressel and hugged him.
Those two embraces represent a pivotal moment in USA Swimming, a look into its past, present and future. Dressel, 24, welcomed the first-time Olympian to the team and said goodbye to a longtime member of Team USA.
Dressel is now a veteran – a captain, a leader. He will compete in seven events - three individual sprints and four relays - in Tokyo in what will be his second sporting event.
When she hugged Adrian, she said he told her that he "isn't ready to go to the Olympics without you." Adrian's shoes, Dressel said, were too big to fill.
"I don't care too much for the spotlight," Dressel told NBC Sports ahead of the 2021 Olympic Trials.
He may not love it or be ready for it, but it is his regardless. With Adrian and Ryan Lochte, the two mainstays, failing to make the team, the role of leader now belongs to him.
"I want to take everything I learned from Michael [Phelps], Lochte and Nathan and bring it to this team. I want to lead by example," Dressel told a pre-Olympic news conference in July.
Dressel has yet to win an individual medal at the Olympics; He won two team relay gold at the 2016 Games in Rio. He will have seven gold chances in these Olympics. Should he sweep, it would still be one short of Phelps' record set in Beijing in 2008. If he can win a medal in all his events, he will become the fourth swimmer to take home. Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi are others.
Dressel's journey to these Games began on Sunday as part of the 4x100 relay, which won the gold medal. His quest to become "The Next Michael Phelps" is officially underway.
While Dressel has never won an Olympic individual medal, he has been preparing for this breakout moment for quite some time.
Four years earlier, at the NCAA Division I Championships, he broke US Open and US records in the 100 m freestyle and butterfly. He then won seven gold medals at the 2017 Aquatic World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, becoming only the second swimmer after Phelps to win seven golds at the World Championships. Phelps, of course, was the other. Dressel was voted the men's swimmer of the meet.
That was the moment in 2017 when comparisons to Phelps began. Dressel won three gold medals in one night – in the 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 4x100m mixed freestyle relay – becoming the first person to achieve the feat at a World Championships or Olympics. Neither did Phelps.
"Comparisons are probably inevitable," Dressel said at the time. "But I'm not a person like Michael."
At the 2019 World Aquatic Championships, he won eight medals - seven gold and one silver, one each by himself. This is the most wins by any swimmer in a single championship event. In the semi-final heat of the 100m butterfly, he broke Phelps' 10-year-old world record, finishing 0.32 seconds ahead of Phelps in 49:50.
"It wasn't easy in '17, it wasn't easy this year," Dressel said at the time. "I don't want it to be easy, I really don't."
Like most athletes, Dressel had to adapt in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. First he was forced to stop training, and then once he was able to resume, he trained on his own – when he could find a pool in which to train. He is married to high-school sweetheart and former swimmer Meghan Halla. To stay fit, the couple took a walk on the Appalachian Trail. He also bought a house in Florida, and Dressel spent his time making furniture for it.
When Dressel came back to training, he picked up where he left off. He was still swimming the record bar. He was calm and composed, learned a lot about himself, his family, and what was important in life, he said on his podcast, "The Ben & Caleb Show," at the time.
Dressel for the big stage is nothing new. He was the youngest male swimmer—at age 15—at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, in his offenses against Phelps and Lochte. He didn't make it to the finals, but he got valuable experience. Then, in 2016, he finished second behind Adrian in the 100m freestyle, securing his first Olympic spot.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he helped Team USA win two golds in relay events. In the 4x100 m freestyle relay, Dressel swam the first stage in 48.10, the second fastest time by anyone in the first leg of the race. In the 100m freestyle, which has now become his marquee event, he finished sixth.
This time, he was one of the big stars of the trials. After the 100m freestyle, he turned to a fan – a young boy who looked and dressed very similar to Dressel – and took pictures with him.
"It was anything but an easy year. This meeting is brutal," he said at the time. "Unless you're running, it's really not that much fun, but I'm really happy and really proud of myself. There's no shame in saying that."
Now, he reached Tokyo as a captain. He seeks to bring with him the calmness of Phelps, the composure of Adrian and the confidence of Lochte as he takes on this new role. He has leaned on them all throughout his career, especially during the pandemic, he said in the trials.
If his approach to the Olympic Trials is any indication, Dressel is ready - for the spotlight, for the moment.
He is poised to be the next big name in swimming.