INDIANAPOLIS – Olympic sports are no less star-driven than basketball, football or baseball. A case could be made that Olympic sports are more dependent because of the once-every-four-years spotlight that dims thereafter.

Swimming lives in that brownout now.

Three of its most famous figures — Michael Phelps (retired), Ryan Lochte (suspended), Missy Franklin (injured) — did not compete in the Phillips 66 National Championships, which finished off a five-day run at the Natatorium at IUPUI.

On the women’s side, no problem. Katie Ledecky, Lilly King and Simone Manuel transitioned from athletes to quasi celebrities by winning gold medals at last year’s Rio Olympics. On the men’s side … no wonder U.S. coach David Durden of California joked:

“Well, we’ve got to get Phelps back in the water. That’s the first thing we’ve got to do.”

The next thing is to allow Caeleb Dressel to keep doing what he’s doing.

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His name might not register outside the swim community, but get used to hearing it. It would be ludicrous to ask him to do what Phelps did. Yet Dressel is as good a candidate as any for NBC to hype ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“I think there are multiple new faces of the sport,” said Dressel, 20, of the University of Florida. “I don’t think you can put that solely on one person.”

He qualified for up to seven events (including a mixed relay) for the World Championships, set for July 23-30 at Budapest, Hungary. He won three events at these nationals — including Saturday’s 50-meter freestyle in 21.53 seconds — and came within .01 seconds of four. Dressel won two relay golds at Rio.

“He’s taking it methodically. That’s the way I saw Michael (Phelps) do it going into 2008,” said Nathan Adrian, who beat Dressel by .01 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle.

Dressel has left colleges agape at achievements in a 25-yard pool. He set American records in the 100-yard freestyle (40-flat) and butterfly at the NCAAs. Now he is carrying that to 50-meter, Olympic-sized pools.

“You just see it coming,” Durden said. “Everybody wants it quicker for Caeleb than the process that Caeleb is moving toward. He’s moving through the right steps through this. And he’s moving through the right process to be an elite-level swimmer at the pace as it should be.

“It’s always tough with some younger swimmers because expectations are put on them that are not necessarily fair to them,” Durden added.

That could apply to Carmel’s 17-year-old Drew Kibler. He didn’t have the nationals he sought and conceded pressure had something to do with it. On the other hand, 2020 is so far away that this meet could end up being a stepping stone rather than a stumbling back.

New pro Ryan Murphy won three Rio golds. He was beaten Friday in the 100 backstroke by Matt Grevers, the 2012 Olympic champion. The win by Grevers, 32, was the most popular of the nationals.

Murphy is the least of Durden’s worries. The coach recounted that Murphy’s world record in the 100 backstroke came in his eighth swim at Rio.

“Everybody wants it for these athletes to set world records every time they touch the water,” Durden said. “And that’s just not the reality of it.”

Phelps (28) and Lochte (12) have won more Olympic medals than any male swimmers in history, and they achieved a Q-rating transcending their sport. Evidence of their grip is that one or the other has won every Olympic or world gold in the 200 individual medley since 2003.

As Dressel suggested, swimming doesn’t necessarily need a Phelps/Lochte succession plan.

“We’re allowing that to build this summer, and not trying to force it,” Durden said. “We don’t need to have someone be a Michael Phelps.”

Americans posted world-leading times in eight events over five days. The world team will be a mixture of experience and youth, similar to Rio.

Durden was encouraged by depth in breaststroke — that wasn’t the case in 2013 as Rio loomed — and should be confident about the 400 freestyle relay, considering four of the year’s fastest eight men in the 100 free are Americans.

Meanwhile, the women have a collection of veterans, rising stars such as Mallory Comerford and youngsters such as 15-year-old Regan Smith. Rio represented the first Olympics in 116 years that the U.S. team had no one younger than 18.

“I think we’re in a really good spot,” said U.S. coach Greg Meehan of Stanford.

Leah Smith has been “phenomenal,” Meehan said. Besides finishing second to Ledecky in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles, Smith won the 1,500 free and 400 individual medley.

Preworlds training camp will be in Croatia. Meehan said it was important not to try to recreate the Rio buildup because the timetable is not the same.

“For some, it’s going to be training camp,” he said. “For some, it’s going to be maintenance camp. For some, it’s going to be a resting camp.”

For all, it will be another rung on the ladder to Tokyo.

Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195 or email david.woods@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.