Full Circle — Ahead of final Olympics, Lilly King qualifies yet again in front of home state crowd: ‘Really special moment’

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Lilly King won three medals in the Tokyo Olympics — but nobody was there to see it. On Monday night, she qualified once again for the 2024 Paris Games, heading back to the Olympics to represent Team USA for a third time and this time, back in front of fans.

Because of the Covid pandemic, fans were not allowed into events the last time the summer games were held in 2021. King has competed in just about every type of venue, including the silent arenas three years ago.

But Monday night it was not only in front of a crowd, it was back in her home state where she competed in the Olympic Trials for one final time in her historic career.

“The pressure is still there for this meet, but yeah, it’s a crazy meet, obviously, and I think just I had just a really special moment tonight,” King said following her qualification on Monday. “I think I basked in it a little bit more than I have in the past just being here in Indy and also with it being my last Trials. So it was just a great night overall.”

King, 27, became the second American to make three Olympic teams in the 100 breaststroke joining Amanda Beard. King has also made every US team she’s tried to qualify for in any international event.

Yet, she still keeps coming back for more.

She has two Gold Medals, two Silvers and one Bronze in her Olympic career. She also adds 23 more medals throughout all World Championship events. She’s done it all, and more, and is still seeking out more as her international career is slowly winding down.

“I think always for me just at this point in my career I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do,” King said. “It’s just striving to be the best version of myself that I can be and that’s kind of where I was going for tonight but tonight is just like don’t mess up. When you really get down to it, it’s don’t mess up, swim a smart race and see what happens.”

But no matter how confident she is, no matter how much she’s accomplished — the nerves always rise up.

“As semis last night (Sunday), I was going in very, very confident, and all day (Monday) I was probably the most calm I’ve ever been before that final,” King said. “And probably 30 minutes before we dove in, I was freaking out.”

Those nerves have been consistent ever since her last Olympic competition. King, who has been open about helping others with mental health, continues to work on herself everyday despite the wall of medals she has.

Her confidence, one of the biggest assets you need as an athlete, has been a constant work in progress over the last few years. And she knows one small hiccup can be the difference between joining the Olympic team and watching the Olympics at home.

“My confidence took a major, major hit and I’m still working to build that,” King said. “Now to say I’m at the confidence level I was in 2021 would be just a flat out lie. But yeah, that’s been something that I have probably had to work the hardest since 2021 getting back to that whatever monster version of little that I walks out before the race.

“I would say going into 2021, I pretty much felt invincible. Going into 2016, I felt pretty much invincible. That was not necessarily the case tonight. I think it’s also just learning how to race with the heat a little bit. Tonight I could have taken it out a lot faster but I’ve so many 100 breast strokes that have gone wrong the last 15 meters, I didn’t want to do that tonight. I think just learning from those experiences, a lot of bad races over the last three years, kind of helped me get that win tonight even though the time might not have been super fast.”

Lilly King won the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:05.43 on Monday. Emma Weber was the runner-up in 1:06.10 — edging the reining Tokyo gold medalist Lydia Jacoby by 0.27. And unfortunately for Jacoby, she won’t be heading back to Paris to defend her title.

Despite feeling ‘heartbroken’ for Jacoby, King also had moments of excitement. Not even around her own accomplishments, rather the accomplishments of her now Team USA teammates … all from the state of Indiana. After sending a record five swimmers from Indiana in the Tokyo Olympics, through three nights this year, five state of Indiana swimmers have already punched their ticket to Paris.

And for Lilly King, this is nothing new. Instead, it’s ‘what we do’.

“This is what we do,” King said of swimmers growing up in Indiana. “Like obviously I have a rooting interest, but I’d go to high school state every year and see kids drop fastest time in the country every year, every single year, and I don’t think it is something that is always acknowledged. You know, we think of, Oh, California, Texas, like the big states, they are good at swimming. But we are not just good at basketball here. We are good at swimming, too.

” … All the swimmers that have Indiana ties are swimming fast here because we are so used to swimming fast here, it’s been easy, and the crowd has been making that happen, too.”

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