Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, and many more Olympic medalists, are entered in the first Pro Swim Series meet of the year, live on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA this week.
Swimmers gather in suburban Chicago — Westmont, to be exact — as they prepare for world championships trials in April.
Olympic Channel airs live finals coverage Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. ET, also streaming on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app. Entry lists are here.
Ledecky and Dressel both changed coaches since the Tokyo Games and train under the same man, University of Florida head coach Anthony Nesty.
Ledecky moved from Stanford, where she competed for the Cardinal, turned professional in 2018 and then continued to train under coach Greg Meehan. In Florida, she is closer to her family in Maryland.
Dressel stayed in Gainesville, announcing a switch from club coach Gregg Troy in November. Dressel later said he was the only member from Troy’s post-grad group who is still swimming.
“After coming back from Tokyo, I think I needed some change,” Dressel told Swimswam. “It just worked out, the timing of where me and Troy were at in our lives.”
Troy, who retired as UF coach in 2018, later told retired Australian Olympian Brett Hawke that he talked with Dressel, and that Troy had a lack of pool access in the area. Troy said that Dressel asked him to stay in contact, and he obliged.
Individual Olympic gold medalists Lydia Jacoby, Lilly King and Ryan Murphy are also entered in Westmont.
Two previously scheduled Pro Series meets this year were canceled — a Knoxville stop in January (due to COVID) and a Des Moines stop that was supposed to be this weekend. The Des Moines meet was canceled after FINA announced that the 2022 World Championships were postponed to 2023.
After FINA rescheduled worlds for Budapest this June and July, the Westmont meet was added to the Pro Series schedule.
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