One of the last superstar holdouts to join the International Swimming League, American swimmer Caeleb Dressel has been announced as the league’s 10th ambassador, joining the Cali Condors. The team is led by general manager Jason Lezak.
Ambassadors are paid an additional amount of money by the league above-and-beyond the $25,000 per-athlete maximum salary from each team. Other swimmers in the ambassador program are Nathan Adrian, Cate Campbell, Katinka Hosszu, Katie Ledecky, Florent Manaudou, Ryan Murphy, Adam Peaty, Federica Pellegrini and Sarah Sjostrom
The 23-year old Dressel was the most successful swimmer at the 2019 World Championships, coming away with 6 gold medals and 2 silver medals, including 4 individual golds (more than anybody else at the meet). He won the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly, and 100 fly. All 4 swims came in new American Records, and his 100 butterfly time of 49.50 broke Michael Phelps’ World Record.
In total, Dressel owns 2 Olympic gold medals from Rio (both on relays), 13 long course World Championships, and 6 short course World Championships.
Internationally, Dressel is best known as a sprint freestyler and butterflier, but in this ISL format his versatility could really come into play – he’s a former American Record holder in the 100 yard breaststroke and current American Record holder in the 200 yard IM as well.
While Dressel is certainly a crowning jewel of the league, there does have to be some tempering of expectations given that Dressel’s biggest performances have historically come at taper meets. In-season, he’s certainly one of the best in the world, but doesn’t maintain the same undisputed status that he earned at the World Championships. For exaxmple, from September 1st through March 31st of last season, he ranked 5th in the world in the 100 fly and 12th in the world in the 100 free in long course. Of course, Dressel’s underwaters and the short course format of the ISL will make up for a lot of that.
Dressel’s Lifetime Bests:
| SCM | SCY | LCM | |
| 50 free | 20.43 | 17.63 | |
| 100 free | 45.62 | 39.9 | |
| 200 free | — | 1:33.42 | 1:47.31 |
| 50 fly | — | — | |
| 100 fly | 48.71 | 42.8 | |
| 50 breast | — | — | 27.89 |
| 100 breast | — | 50.03 | 1:01.22 |
| 200 IM | — | 1:38.13 | 2:01.72 |
His addition to the Condors’ roster brings the team up to 27 announced swimmers: 14 men and 13 women, pending finalization of the “suspended” status of Shayna Jack. The Cali Condors will kick off their 2019 ISL season in Indianapolis from October 4th-5th. The biggest remaining ‘free agent’ is another American 23-year old, Simone Manuel. She is the defending Olympic and World Champion in the 100 free and also thee defending World Champion in the 50 free in long course.
| Women | Men |
| Kelsi Dahlia | Bowen Becker |
| Mallory Comerford | Townley Haas |
| Melanie Margalis | Nic Fink |
| Hali Flickinger |
Kacper Majchrzak
|
| Kylie Masse | Anton Ipsen |
| Molly Hannis | Justin Ress |
| Natalie Hinds | John Shebat |
| Shayna Jack* | Jan Świtkowski |
| Ariarne Titmus | Mark Szaranek |
| Lilly King | Mitch Larkin |
| Olivia Smoliga | Andrew Wilson |
| Kasia Wilk | Jack Cartwright |
| Kelsey Wo |
Radosław Kawęcki
|
| Caeleb Dressel |
*pending outcome of anti-doping proceedings
Can someone provide me with a link to buy a ticket for the first swim meet in Indy? The one that’s a month away?
Do I really have to spell this out? I’ll do so after this first meet. This is an embarrassment to our sport.
There is no link available.
I would love if you did a breakdown of the different team rosters!
We definitely intend to! We’re hoping to get a little more information about format before we do that – without that context a breakdown would be a little bit ‘light’.
Wow what a game changer, takes a good roster to co-favorite with Energy Standard IMO.
It’s great for the fans he’ll be swimming but the caution about tempering expectations in the article is right on. He’s going to swim these meets very tired. MA, Santos and others who rest more and swim better in-season will probably beat him in certain events (maybe not the 100 fly). Maybe in an off-Olympic cycle year we’ll get a Dressel at SCM Worlds like Lochte was in his prime. I’d pay money to see prime Dressel vs prime Flo in a broken 200 IM SCM.
Would come down to Flo’s back vs Caeleb breaststroke
Can anyone answer what events will be swum at ISL meets (like will 100 IM be there since it is short course and I think distance events are cut), how many swimmers per team will swim each event (guessing 2 per individuals and 1 or 2 relays), and how many events can one person swim? Will this sort of be like a high school/ college dual meet except with 4 teams?
Still no good details, and it seems to be a moving target, so while we have heard lots of information at different points in time, we can’t be sure what’s up to date and not.
We do have a good sense of events. It will be the full World Championship schedule, minus the mixed relays, 800, 1500, 100 IM, and 800 free relay. We don’t *believe* there will be event limits per athlete. Each team will get 2 lanes per event (at least in individuals – I think maybe just 1 relay per team, but not sure).
I thought that the 4 im might not be on either. Maybe im just wrong.
Hopefully Caleb has worked on his SCM stroke counts
Good for Simone. Hold out until they give you the max. Not a penny less than the top paid athlete in the league.
She is still behind Cate and Sarah. When she becomes the fastest she can talk about getting more money.
were you chillin on a space station somewhere the last 2 months
Hold out for the 💰. There is only one person in the league on Simone’s level, he’s the subject of this article.
Simone does not swim fast in season, what was her ranking before worlds? So maybe her value is not the highest in a league like this, except for the PR.
and Caeleb in season? He’s the best and he should get paid just like Simone. How many times does Simone need to smoke these girls before she gets some respect. Who cares what the Campbell sisters do at some neighborhood swim league they seem to set records at every year.
We do
I mean, the ISL cares if the “neighborhood swim league” is the “ISL” lol.
This is the one context where you can’t genuinely play the “who cares about in-season swims, swimmer X wins at Worlds when it counts” card. If you think Simone or Caeleb is going full-bore after the ISL league title in the Olympic season, then you’re kidding yourself.
I agree. This is strictly tuneups for a Simone/Caeleb in an Olympic year but we all know who’s the best. And pay them like it. Going into next year Tokyo, you’ll hear the same arguments on times throughout the year until the podium shows otherwise
question is whether the swimmers care about winning for money which is what this professional league is supposedly about. Agree with Braden saying “if the neighborhood swim league is the ISL”.
In a sense, the sport of swimming (including swimmers and fans) is changing and the need to accept a new mentality of “swimming for money” (not just swimming for medals at Olympics or to a lesser extend of World Championships) is needed for the success of ISL and whatever changes they hope to effect with FINA.
Peaty is above Simone given she has zero individual world records and not a fraction as dominant.
I’ll give you Peaty, Dressel and Katinka. That’s it
Sjostrom??
Look forward to more SC WR’s..go Caeleb!!