Caeleb Dressel Wins Brand Ambassadorship With Omega

During each passing day of the swimming events at the Tokyo Olympics, Omega has blasted emails to media about Caeleb Dressel’s power in the pool. Now the brand has signed up the five-time gold medalist as a brand ambassador.

The 24-year-old swimmer joins the ranks of Mark Spitz, Eric Heiden, Matt Biondi and Michael Phelps in being the only male athletes to have won five gold medals at one Olympics. Dressel’s dominance led to a world record in the 100-meter butterfly (49.45), being part of the world-record-setting relay team on the men’s 4 x 100-meter medley relay (3:26.76), and Olympic records in the 50-meter (21.07) and 100-meter freestyle events (47.02). The Floridian was also part of the winning men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay (3:08.97.)

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As the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, Omega has served in this capacity 29 times since 1932.

Dressel’s new alliance isn’t a stretch, considering Omega put him right to work in Tokyo, having him buzz by the brand’s “Showcase,” where chief executive officer Alain Zobrist is playing host. For the occasion, he sported an Omega Seamaster coaxial master chronometer chronograph diver 300m in steel and 18-karat yellow gold with a blue ceramic dial and bezel. The watch has a NATO strap in USA colors. “I got it in Hawaii. I don’t usually choose navy blue, but this watch kind of screamed at me. I had to have it — and I really like gold.”

The American athlete tried his hand at watchmaking, too, according to the company. Dressel knows another familiar face and heavily-medaled Olympian among Omega’s brand ambassadors: Phelps.

During an NBC on-air interview before leaving Tokyo, Dressel spoke of looking forward to a three-week break from swimming, planning a postponed honeymoon and his sportsmanlike toss of a gold medal to his 20-year-old teammate Brooks Curry, who had swum in Dressel’s place during the preliminaries to allow him to rest up. Explaining how he had wanted Curry to keep the medal until his own gold arrived post-Olympics, Dressel said Curry gave it back to him later. He added that that says a lot about Team USA.

Dressel also spoke of the commitment of his team and so many others, after what has been a trying and uncertain year due to the pandemic. He was more lighthearted about crying during a post-race pool deck after seeing his wife Meghan and family’s reaction to his 100-meter freestyle win. As a former swimmer, Meghan Dressel has said the pair were friends first and that his mantra is “Be kind.” With his translucent Clark Kent eyeglasses, colorful tattoos and turquoise sneakers, the broad-shouldered Dressel appears to be ready to rack up more sponsors. Speedo, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Nobull, Comcast and Hershey’s are among his current ones.

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