Tokyo Olympic star Caeleb Dressel makes his debut at US swim trials, advancing in the 100 free

By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP National Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Caeleb Dressel has made his debut at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, posting the third-fastest time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle. The winner of five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, Dressel walked away from the sport in the midst of the 2022 world championships. He returned to the pool last year, but he failed to qualify for the 2023 worlds. While Dressel’s times have improved greatly since then, it could be a struggle to qualify in all three of the individual events he won at the last Olympics: 50 free, 100 free and 100 butterfly. Dressel touched in 47.82 seconds, nearly three-quarters of a second behind rising American star Jack Alexy’s time of 47.08.