Caeleb Dressel has never felt tired of acknowledging his close ones’ role in his dark days. One prominent face among those close ones is his University of Florida coach, Anthony Nesty. Despite facing repeated failures or days off from the practice times, Nesty never lost hope in his Olympic medalist trainee. In a similar line, Caeleb Dressel has felt that the freshman group under his coach’s tutelage might be the best in time.

Additionally, that has helped Dressel to achieve many things recently. One of those things was some lighthearted moments shared in the swimming practice session. Caeleb Dressel named a young prodigy in that remembrance. 

Caeleb Dressel recalls practice experience with Bella Sims 

The pre-tournament practice session with the freshman pack of the Florida Gators paid Caeleb Dressel nicely. The resurgent swimming icon made an impressive return to the US Open Swimming Championship. Certain moments from that practice session were dear to the 7-time Olympic gold medalist, as they played a crucial role in his positive mindset. In the interview with SwimSwam, Dressel recalled Bella Sims for accompanying him in one of such moments. He narrated, “I matched up a little better with Bella. I’m just going to go ahead and give Bella all her credit”. But that defined just one part of the happenings. 

Later, Caeleb Dressel explained how Bella Sims outperformed him in the short course yards. So, the former world champion took a mind-boggling decision to champion her. He quipped, “so I started like cheating. At the end, I added a little more underwaters and then she had…”. However, that ended on a high note. Later, the swimming sensation named a few more from that experience part. 

The session was full of impressive ones

Spilling more beans on that practice session in the same interview, Caeleb Dressel claimed, “I don’t care who you are. There’s always someone to match up with I think, especially…especially the Freshman group this year…”. He was impressed with Josh Liendo and Bella Sims, whose timings outperformed him in several outings in that session. That might motivate Bella Sims to achieve more. The 18-year-old swimming prodigy’s best international outing remains her gold medal in the 4×200 m free relay in Budapest last year. 

Read more: Caeleb Dressel Has a Message for Haters After US Open Swimming Championship

Meanwhile, Dressel wasn’t shy to name Caeleb Maldari, Macguire McDuff, Jonny Marshall, and Scotty Buff from the freshman bunch to impress him in the practice session. Among them, Macguire McDuff has already made it to the USA’s national swimming team. Caeleb Dressel might be hoping for more from this impressive bunch before the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

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