"It's a good group" - Caeleb Dressel asks fans to help charitable cause for organization where his mother is involved
American swimmer Caeleb Dressel recently expressed his pride in his mother for performing a noble gesture for Kenyan children. The 27-year-old shared a small jist of his mother’s social work and urged his followers to also contribute for the underprivileged children.
The seven-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel’s mother, Christina Dressel has been a strong source of support for the swimmer. The mother-of-four always celebrated the swimmer’s highs and also supported him in his lows.
In fact, Christina was so overwhelmed with Caeleb Dressel’s win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that she hid her face when the swimmer was seconds away from touching the finish wall.
Just as, Caeleb Dressel’s mother supports her son, the swimmer too feels proud of his mother’s endeavors. Recently, he shared about his mother’s noble work for underprivileged children in Kenya.
On his Instagram story, Dressel shared a link to a noble organization named Soles By Grace that is working to provide durable footwear to needy children in Kenya.
He also added that the organization has already helped kids with over 550 pairs of shoes and socks till now. His story also urged his followers to donate as little as $10 to help the poor children in the East African country.
Sharing his mother’s proud work, Caeled Dressel also praised her by adding a small note that read:
“My Mama is involved so you know it’s a good group.”
Christina Dressel on Caeleb Dressel’s depression
Caeleb Dressel abruptly withdrew his name from world championships last year. It later turned out that the swimmer had been battling depression and anxiety for a long time in his career.
The root cause of Dressel’s depression was the pressure of excelling in international competitions. He faced extreme pressure at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because of Michael Phelps’s absence. For the first time after 2016, the Olympic Games was set to miss seeing the ace swimmer compete.
Therefore, the spotlight automatically came to Dressel, as he had already shone in people’s eyes due to his previous performances. Despite the pressure, he managed to win five gold medals that year.
Remembering Dressel’s battle with depression, his mom shared his condition in an interview on In Depth With Graham Bensinger in 2022.
“[He] didn’t want to eat,” said his mother, Christina. “I was like, ‘Caeleb you have to get out of this dark room… He was just in a deep depression. He just didn’t want to be around people… I think it was just a reminder of, ‘Great, I let this person down ‘cause I didn’t get a world record.’”
After a long break from his swimming fame, Dressel has now slowly begun to return to the sport. He recently competed and won at the Florida-Virginia dual meet.