Caeleb Dressel repeated as Male Athlete of the Year after taking home gold medals in all three of his individual events in Tokyo – the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle. He also became just the fourth male swimmer to ever win five gold medals for the U.S. at a single Olympic Games, by swimming key legs on the men’s 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays in Tokyo to help Team USA earn gold medals in both of those races. Dressel previously won the award in 2019 for his performances at the 2019 FINA World Championships (individual athlete awards were not presented during the 2020 Golden Goggle Awards due to the cancellation and postponement of the majority of competitions). “This [Olympic Games] was a lot different than Rio I think for a lot of people here, but especially myself,” Dressel said. “I feel like I was just a little kid – I had taken part in Rio and - being honest - the medals were a huge highlight, but not this year. It was a lot different. I tried to go into the camp after [U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming] and the Games itself with big eyes and to take everything in, and I have some of the best memories of my life coming back. That is the most important part for me. The biggest ‘thank you’ I have is for my fellow Olympians, and of course the staff and [Gregg] Troy and everybody, but my fellow Olympians made such a big event—the biggest event in the world, the Olympics—they made it seem like something like exactly what it was, it was swimming. . . All of my teammates just made it feel like a normal swim meet, and that is all that I have ever wanted in the sport..”