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Caeleb Dressel is one of the best swimmers in the world right now. He is at the peak of his powers and has even been compared to Michael Phelps, a comparison that he quickly shut down. He's a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, which would make it seem like the Olympics are a lot of fun for him.
However, that's not the case. Dressel opened up about how difficult the Olympics really are, saying in an interview with CBS Morning:
“It’s a week of hell, if I’m being quite honest. Being on the podium, of course, is enjoyable, but the majority of what — not just myself, not just swimmers, I think the majority of all athletes — it’s not necessarily fun, the core of the whole process.
Most viewers of the Olympics probably don't realize how hard it can be on athletes, which makes their successes even more impressive.
Caeleb Dressel thinks the Olympics are the hardest thing in life, but well worth it
The swimmer continued in that interview by saying that everything they do as athletes boils down to a race that takes a tiny amount of time. He said:
“You go your whole life for one moment that boils down to a race that lasts a couple seconds. If you’re a little bit off that day — I wasn’t I wasn’t perfect in any race. I wasn’t perfect mindset-wise going into any event. Every ready room is different, every year is completely different, and there’s parts of it that suck."
However, he did say that the struggles, the training, the frustration, the anxiety and everything else that comes with competing at the Olympics was well worth it to win gold. Dressel added:
"But at no point in that quote did I say, none of it was worth it. It’s all a great learning experience. Every part of it, I do enjoy.”
In the original quote that CBS Mornings was asking about, Dressel said:
“Some parts were extremely enjoyable. I would say the majority of them were not. You can’t sleep right, you can’t nap, shaking all the time. I probably lost 10 pounds. I’m going to weigh myself and eat some food when I get back. It’s a lot of stress we put on the body."
All of that happens behind the scenes, so Olympic viewers generally don't know what these athletes go through. They cheer them on regardless, but there's a lot of difficulty that no one really knows about.
Dressel is just 25-years-old, so there's a strong chance he will go through it all again to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. He will look to build on his already incredible Olympic career.
