DiPrimio: Lilly King Seeks Final Shot at Olympic Glory
7/9/2024 3:37:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving, Olympics
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – There will be no 2028 Olympics, or any after that, for Lilly King. She is adamant. The Paris Games are the end of it. Three U.S. Olympic Teams as a swimming superstar that include countless hours of training and grinding are enough.
"No. I'm good," King says about racing after the upcoming Olympics in Paris. "I'm at the point in my life where I've accomplished everything I've ever wanted to do in the sport. I don't think many people can say that. I'm very fortunate."
King speaks from a Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall press conference setting. Top-two performances in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke events during June's U.S. Olympic Trials at Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium have propelled the former Indiana University standout to a final shot at international glory. She aims to take full advantage.
"I had a great week (at the Trials), but 11 months out of the year, I'm pretty tired and exhausted. I don't want to stay miserable all the time."
Misery has had its rewards. No female Hoosier athlete has ever won as many Olympic medals (two golds, two silvers and a bronze); no other IU female swimmer has ever participated in three Olympics. She has set multiple world records and became the first woman in history to win eight NCAA breaststroke titles.
"She's one of the greatest breaststrokers the U.S. and the world has ever seen in accomplishment and longevity," IU swim coach Ray Looze says.
Longevity is not forever. A decade in the international spotlight has taken a toll.
"It's hard being on this grind for as long as I have," the 27-year-old King says.
Sports history, of course, is full of athletes who retired and then unretired. Basketball player Michael Jordan, boxer Muhammad Ali and even swimmer Michael Phelps are prime examples.
Phelps retired after the 2012 Olympics only to return to the sport in 2014 and swim in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro before retiring for good with a record 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.
King insists that won't be her. Her post-Olympic plans include a wedding. Fiancé and fellow IU swimming alum James Wells' proposal followed her winning 200 breaststroke U.S. Trials effort and made world-wide headlines that included an NBC Today Show segment.
"I'm doing the basic engagement stuff like looking at (wedding) venues," she says, "but we won't do the main wedding things until after the Games."
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Olympic rivals take notice – the fiercely competitive King remains determined to go out on top. The Games run July 26 through Aug. 11. Swimming pool competition goes from July 27 to Aug. 4.
"I don't want to lose," King says when asked what drives her. "It's not that deep. I don't want the person next to me to beat me. That's all it is."
Blake Pieroni has seen that drive up close. Like King, he is a former Hoosier swimming standout and a three-time Olympian. He has a pair of gold medals in the 400-meter freestyle relay, and another gold in the 400 medley relay.
Pieroni did retire for seven months in 2022 (working in private equity at a real estate company while recovering from knee surgery) but came back to make the Paris Olympic team as a member of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
"Lilly will be remembered more as a racer," he says. "It doesn't matter what the meet is, how she feels, what the times are or who's doing what. She will put 100 percent maximum effort into that. That is a good thing for younger kids to realize."
Pieroni understands how hard that is to sustain.
"You're tired all the time in college. People are like, I didn't do well because I didn't feel good. Really, it doesn't matter. We don't care. It's all excuses. Lilly will be remembered for racing every time no matter what the meet or the occasion is. That's a great thing."
Looze has seen plenty of greatness during his 22-years as IU head swimming coach, plus two opportunities as a U.S. Olympic assistant coach. That includes a combined 13 Big Ten team titles for the women's and men's programs.
"Lilly has transformed us," he says. "She made us a popular brand in collegiate swimming and worldwide.
"Listen to the crowd when she walked out at every race (during the U.S. Trials). She loved that. We talked about that was going to be important to her. That feeds her flame."
Beyond racing, King has been an invaluable mentor for teammates over the years, including fellow Team USA members and Hoosiers Anna Peplowski (4x200-meter freestyle relay), Mariah Denigan (open water 10K) and Josh Matheny (200-meter breaststroke).
"With Lilly being a breaststroke legend," Denigan says, "and having her around every day and being to talk to her when you're having a rough practice is so valuable."
Matheny says value includes showing what it means to be elite every day.
"When you do have a bad practice, you can ask Lilly, 'What's up with this?' She says, 'I've been there. This is how to bring yourself back.'"
Looze saw this potential while recruiting her out of Evansville, Indiana, and has reaped the benefits ever since.
"She's been such a leader," he says. "An icon. The breaststroke for women can be very fleeting. It's a boom-bust thing. Her ability to make three Olympic Games and be so consistent is tremendous. It shows exceptional leadership to the state of Indiana and to all the little girls and boys who want to be like her."
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As far as King's Olympic prospects, these Games lack the drama of the 2016 Rio Games, when King's rivalry with Soviet swimmer Yuliya Efimova, who had been suspended for 16 months for doping, made world-wide headlines, or the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, delayed a year because of the pandemic.
"No matter how many Olympics you go to," King says, "it's going to be new. In 2016, we were overwhelmed with the process. I forgot a lot of what happened in 2016. Then, 2021 was just weird. You can't count that as a normal Olympic experience.
"This will be my first all-in Olympic experience. It's cool to be my third. World championships happen every year, so they can get old, but the Olympics don't."
King understands the challenge will be formidable with strong breaststrokers from China (Tang Qianting), the Netherlands (Tes Schouten) and South Africa (Tatjana Schoenmaker, Lara van Niekerk) leading the way.
Qianting set an Asian record with a 1:04.39 100 breaststroke time at the Chinese Olympic Trials, just off King's record of 1:04.13 set in 2017.
"There are some very competitive girls," King says. "One of the Chinese breaststrokers is two tenths of a second off my record. That is concerning for me. We'll see how I race and how she races. The South Africans also have two very good racers. We'll see who's on."
After that, with swimming in her rearview mirror, comes new worlds to conquer.
"I'm ready to move on with life. Do new things, see new places and not have to worry about going to practice."
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