Meghan Dressel watched her husband, swimmer Caeleb Dressel, and his teammates win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she’s been cheering him on since 2013.
Caeleb, 27, is no stranger to winning big — he notably took home five gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo — but he and his teammates snagged Team USA’s first gold medal in Paris on Saturday, July 27, in the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay. For Caeleb, having his wife and their 5-month-old son, August, there to cheer him on was better than winning gold.
“It was really special,” Dressel told NBC reporters after the race on Saturday. “I mean, my son getting to watch me win a gold medal is everything.” He continued, “I know that last 50, I just wanted to get a gold medal for these guys. It’s just really special [and] it’s what we came here to do. That’s why it was so tough to make a team and we won by over a second. That’s what we came here to do and we did it in good fashion.”
Meghan and Caeleb began dating in high school in 2013 when the two were both competitive swimmers in their home state of Florida, even competing on the same team. Caeleb told FINA Aquatics World Magazine in April 2020 that he and Meghan “swam at [the] Bolles [School Sharks] together in the late-night group because we didn’t go to school there.”
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He noted, “She mainly did breaststroke,” but she stopped competing “to pursue her dream of becoming a child-family counselor.”
The Paris Olympics are Caeleb and Meghan’s third Games as a couple, but their first as parents, as they welcomed son August in February.
After two Olympics and almost a decade together, Caeleb and Meghan tied the knot in February 2021. (Caeleb previously competed for Team USA in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and again during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.)
While Paris marked their third Olympic Games as a couple, it was also their first as parents as they welcomed their son, August, earlier this year. On Saturday, Meghan was spotted cheering Caeleb on from the sidelines with August in her arms.
As Team USA takes on the 2024 Paris Olympics, the American athletes have already made an impression at the summer games. The 2024 Olympics kicked off on Friday, July 26, with an illustrious opening ceremony that took place entirely outdoors on the River Seine and featured performances from the likes of Celine Dion and Lady […]
Scroll down to learn more about Caeleb and Meghan’s relationship timeline:
2013
Caeleb and Meghan first met in high school as competitive swimmers in Florida. “We grew up swimming together but lived 45 minutes apart,” she told First Coast News in August 2021.
In 2020, Meghan shared a photo of the two as teenagers via Instagram in a sweet Valentine’s Day post, saying, “I’ve loved you since 2013 and I can’t wait to keep loving you forever.”
She added, referencing 2004’s The Notebook, “What started with these couple of kids crazy about each other, has turned into the promise of a lifetime of love that would give Noah and Allie a run for their money🥰.”
2016
Meghan cheered Caeleb on at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, though they had spent the previous years of their relationship being long-distance. In 2016, she told Odyssey that the distance had only helped them as a couple.
“We’ve made it work for two years now being across [the] state,” she said in September. “I think because we’ve had to deal with distance, it’s made us stronger as a couple.”
2019
The couple announced their engagement in November, which Meghan later described via Instagram as the “easiest yes” of her life.
”I proposed at our original meeting spot,” Caeleb told First Coast News at the time. “We did long distance for, technically, seven years. We never lived in the same city, so we had a meeting spot at the Shands Pier. I took her there, [and] she thought we were doing a photo shoot. I did it right at the old pier.”
2021
Caeleb and Meghan tied the knot on February 13, 2021, during an outdoor ceremony with family and friends in Jacksonville, Florida.
2024
Meghan gave birth to her and Caeleb’s first child, son August, in February. “Our baby boy came bursting into our arms on Saturday morning after a very swift and powerful labor,” Meghan wrote via Instagram on February 19. “Mom and Dad were in it together, and we had the intervention-free birth that we had so hoped and prepared for.”
She described August as a “perfect, healthy, chunky baby boy.” A few months later, Meghan brought August to cheer on his dad at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and watched Caeleb win Team USA’s first gold of the games.
“It’s probably hurt more than helped me as a swimmer, but it’s definitely taught me patience. It’s taught me to slow down. The only two things I’ve been able to do is father stuff and swimming in the run-up to Paris 2024,” Dressel told Olympics.com about fatherhood in July.
“It’s definitely a different routine, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It’s been very fulfilling and I’ve loved stepping into that role with Megan.”