NANTERRE, France — If Lilly King isn’t swimming, she just might be talking. As the gregarious voice of reason in American swimming, no issue is too controversial, no comment too incendiary.
Russians are cheating? King is on it, wagging her finger, slapping the water, and winning in the end.
Rival Australians are picking a fight? King is all in on that too, standing up for her American teammates and fearlessly firing back with a tweet or a sound bite.
Her confidence, once so solid, has taken a hit? Sure, let’s talk about that as well.
For the past eight years, King, 27, has been the rock of American swimming, winning gold or losing gold, riding the mercurial waves of her sport. Now she’s at the end. It’s her last Olympics, and the swimming gods so far are not making it easy on her.
On Monday night, in her signature event, the 100 breaststroke, King missed the podium by 1/100th of a second. She actually tied for fourth, one of five swimmers within a third of a second of each other. The winner was South African Tatjana Schoenmaker Smith, also 27, the Olympic gold medalist in the 200 breaststroke in 2021 in Tokyo.
“It was really as close as it could have possibly been,” King said afterward. “It was really just about the touch and I could have very easily been second and I ended up tied for fourth. That’s kind of the luck of the draw with this race.”
At the halfway point of the race, King was not doing particularly well. She was seventh out of eight swimmers, a journalist pointed out.
“Didn’t know I was seventh so that’s an unfortunate fact for myself,” she said. “But yeah, I was really just trying to build that last 50 and kind of fell apart the last 10 meters which is not exactly what I planned but that’s racing, that’s what happens.”
King has been known as a bold and confident swimmer, but after winning the gold in the 100 breaststroke in 2016 in Rio, she settled for a disappointing bronze in Tokyo in a race won by her younger countrywoman, Lydia Jacoby. That’s when doubts began creeping in.
“To say I’m at the confidence level I was in 2021 would be just a flat-out lie,” she said at last month’s U.S. Olympic trials. “Going into 2021, I pretty much felt invincible. Going into 2016, I pretty much felt invincible.”
So, after this excruciatingly close fourth-place finish, she was asked how she felt about her confidence now.
“It sure took a hit tonight, didn’t it?” she said with a smile. “No, it’s something that I really just had to rebuild and I was feeling in a really good place tonight and just wanted to go out there and take in the moment and enjoy the process which I definitely wasn’t doing three years ago. It’s a daily process. I’m still working on it, I think everyone is. I just keep building and building and building.”
King, who has won two golds, two silvers and a bronze in her two previous Olympics, has at least two more events left here, the 200 breaststroke and the medley relay. So she’s not done yet, not at all.
“I know this race happened three years ago and it completely broke me, and I don’t feel broken tonight,” she said. “I’m really so proud of the work I’ve put in and the growth I’ve been able to have in the sport and hopefully influence I’ve been able to have on younger swimmers.”
So on she goes, with one last look back at what might have been in Monday’s race. Asked if she enjoyed it, she laughed.
“The beginning, yeah, but not the end.”
