“Maybe one day they’ll be valuable, I can sell them” – When Caeleb Dressel opened up about his journaling habit
Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel is the most decorated male swimmer in the world. With multiple World Championship medals and several world records to his name, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest swimmers in the world today.
Dressel had a thrilling Tokyo Olympics experience, clinching five gold medals thereby becoming the only fifth American to win five gold medals in a single Olympic edition. Many would think of him as this perfect, strong athlete, which he obviously is, but not many would be aware of his unique habits, one being journaling.
Speaking about his journaling habits with Graham Bensinger, the 26-year-old swimmer said,
“I try to keep it as detailed as I can. I rarely look back at them, to be honest. Maybe one day they'll be valuable, maybe I can sell them.”
Caeleb Dressel shares details of his journaling habits
After his glorious Tokyo Olympics victories, Caeleb Dressel joined Graham Bensinger on his channel to discuss his journalling habits and the impact it had on him. He revealed the logbook training entries he had saved for the last 10 years.
“I usually have two. The first one I call it a log book. I probably have maybe 12 full like the old school composition notebooks of like every practice I've done since around 15 or 16.”
He admitted that he rarely looks back at what is written unless he is freaking out on a taper and his body starts to feel like trash.
He also revealed unfiltered reflections and self-criticism during his training sessions. Dressel competed at the 2012 Olympic trials but did not make it to the US Olympic team. After facing that breakdown, he wrote,
“My body is done. Oh jeez … I know I’m laughing a little bit, but when you’re writing this, this isn’t as a joke. This is good information.”
He continued reading from his journal and said,
“F–k me. F–k my body. F–k swimming. Jeez. Yeah, there’s a totally different side of the sport that a lot of people don’t see. I try to be as honest with myself as I can in these books, ’cause these aren’t for — well until now — these aren’t really for anybody else’s eyes.”
Caeleb Dressel revealed that his first coach introduced him to journaling.
“Jason was the first coach I had who mentioned something about a log book. Every Wednesday we would hand them to him and he would read them.”
Graham also interviewed Dressel's former coach, Greg Troyy, who shared his thoughts on his student. He said,
“You got a guy who is better than anyone and he never thinks he's good enough. Thats a whole another problem and you got be really careful how you are dealing with it.”
Caeleb Dressel has taken a break from journaling
Caeleb Dressel shares logbooks he's saved for the last 10 years and reads unfiltered reflections and self-criticisms during his training sessions. https://t.co/1E9zQiYjlx
Over the last couple of years, Dressel has faced challenges with his mental health which has forced him to take a break from swimming twice. Keeping that in mind, he has reduced his journaling to not be harsh on himself and learn correct journaling.
He said,
“I havent been journaling too much this year. My counselor was kind of asking how I write. It's pretty harsh, like it's either good or bad. So I kind of dropped it for a little bit so I can figure out a better way to write instead of everything being good or bad. I haven't journaled really since Tokyo.”
Caeleb Dressel added that he needs to give himself “a little time to step away” from journaling and learn to do it correctly.