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US swimmer Caeleb Dressel has been the star of the pool ever since his five-gold medal haul at the Tokyo Olympics last year. But swimming is not the only thing Dressel is obsessed with. The iconic swimmer has a bunch of talents up his sleeve.
In April this year, Dressel sat down with Graham Bensinger for an interview wherein he was asked what other things apart from swimming that he gets obsessive with.
Dressel remarked with, "Oh jeez like hobbies and stuff?". But answered saying that he likes exploring new things. He said:
"I like finding new things. Swimming's like the one thing in my life that has been consistent for many years but I'll just find something that I like and that that's the thing that I will focus on most."
Overlanding, Drums and Pokemon - know more about Caeleb Dressel's hobbies
It is not surprising for athletes to have adventurous hobbies and Caeleb Dressel is not that different. He has dabbled in a bunch of thrilling hobbies.
- Overlanding
The swimming star was at one point obsessed with overlanding. But that habit soon wore off.
"Recently it was like overlanding or basically just driving into a state forest or something or national forest and just driving around like I found it so much fun and that lasted for you know maybe two months something.
"But I was like, I was in too deep like I was just obsessing or like that was it was like buying all this stuff for my truck and then now that kind of like died off,"
- Drums
Caeleb Dressel also mentioned some hobbies that he has liked since a young age and has somehow managed to stay with him. That includes playing the drums.
"Drums are in right now for me but drums have been around since like fifth grade."
- Pokemon
Speaking about Dressel's reply about how he was into drums since school, Bensinger said that it was like playing Pokemon. Dressel seemed to agree.
Pokemon's never gone away. I'm playing the new one right now and it's fantastic."
"A majority of what I did after Tokyo was build Legos with a coffee." - Caeleb Dressel
Dealing with pressure and stress is part of being a world-class athlete. And when one is competing at the Olympics, the amount of pressure is unimaginable.
So, what do athletes do to unwind and relax after competitions or when they are on a break? Different athletes have different methods to relax.
But for US swimmer and seven-time Olympic gold medallist Caeleb Dressel, it was building Legos with coffee in the morning at one point.
After winning five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, Dressel took a break for a few weeks owing to mental health concerns. He spoke about what helped him relax during that time, in an interview with Bensinger in April this year.
Caeleb Dressel and his wife Meghan gave Bensinger a tour of their farm home in Florida. During the span of the tour, the couple showed him their cows, Dressel worked on the farm, showed him his gold medals and also flexed his musical talents on the ukelele and the drums.
Dressel showed him what appeared to be his game room, complete with a foosball table. The swimmer joked, saying:
"This is the boys' hangout, no girls allowed."
Bensinger pointed towards a Lego Millennium Falcon and Dressel explained that building it was a majority of what he did after the Tokyo Olympics.
"So this falcon has been really fun to build so this is actually a majority of what I did after Tokyo when I was like on break. I would just kind of wake up in the morning come upstairs build legos with a coffee."
Caeleb Dressel further explained why he found the activity relaxing.
"I find it really relaxing because everything clicks in like perfectly. The noise is the sound I just find it super relaxing."
After his post-Tokyo Olympics break, Dressel returned to competitions in late August 2021. He recently took another break from swimming after the World Championships.
During that time, he went on a honeymoon to Iceland, hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail and swam with some manatees. He has promised to get back to swimming soon.
