Indiana native Lilly King fails to qualify for breaststroke World finals

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana native Lilly King will not compete for a medal in one of her signature events at her final world championships before her retirement.

King, 28, failed Monday morning to qualify for the finals of in the 100-meter breaststroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. She finished 9th out of 16 swimmers with a time of 1:06.26 seconds.

King was .09 seconds behind 8th place swimmer Kotryna Teterevkova of Lithuania. The top 8 swimmers in the semifinal round move on to tomorrow’s event final. Another U.S. swimmer – Kate Douglass – finished first in the semifinal round to advance to the final.

King, a native of Evansville who also starred at Indiana University, announced in May that should would retire from competitive swimming after this year’s World Championships. She will have at least one more chance to pick up a medal at her final international event, as she is scheduled to compete in the 50-meter breaststroke on Friday.

King could also compete in the mixed 4 X 100-meter medley relay tomorrow and the women’s 4 X 100-meter medley relay on Saturday, though the United States has not yet set its relay rotation for either race.

King has won 11 gold and 2 silver medals at long course world championship meets in her career. She also has a total of six career Olympic medals – three of them gold – in three total Olympic games as well as seven career gold medals in world short-course swimming championships. Her only individual Olympic gold medal came during her freshman year at IU when King won the 100-meter breaststroke at the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016.

The four-time All-America selection in college was only the second swimmer in NCAA history to sweep the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke titles in each of her four years, as she helped IU maintain its status as one of the top college swimming programs in the country. King was awarded the Honda Sports Award after her senior year with the Hoosiers in 2019 as the nation’s outstanding female swimmer.

About The Author

See author's posts