Dressel misses World Aquatics Championships after return to competition at U.S. nationals

Two years after winning five Olympic gold medals, Caleb Dressel didn't even make America's world championship swim team.

Still, the 26-year-old Floridian left this week's national championships with a smile.

Dressel tried and failed four times to make next month's worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, missing the "A" finals twice including his last event Saturday, the 50-metre freestyle. He finished tied for 22nd with a time of 22.72 seconds in the frantic sprint from one end of the pool to the other, 1.07 seconds behind top qualifier Ryan Held and 0.59 outside the top eight.

The five-day meet was about more than podium finishes for Dressel. In Dressel's first high-level competition since mysteriously leaving the sport last summer, his coach, Anthony Nesty, saw the joy of competition back on Dressel's face — a sign the long journey back could finally be on track just in time for next year's Olympics.

"He's happy, happy swimming for the first time in a long time," Nesty said following Saturday morning's preliminary heats. "You know a happy athlete is a fast athlete. Obviously, he's not fast yet, but under the circumstances from where he was, he's posting times."

Clearly, this is just the start of Dressel's path to re-establish himself as the world's top swimmer after taking golds in the 100 fly, the 50 and 100 free and two relays at the Tokyo Olympics.

He became the first swimmer since Michael Phelps to win seven gold medals at the 2017 worlds in Budapest, Hungary, and followed up with six golds and two relay silvers at the 2019 championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Then came the Olympic performance.

But after winning two golds and posting the second-fastest time in the 100 free prelims at last year's worlds in Budapest, Dressel