Lilly King wins her place at the Olympic trials. The World’s Most Difficult Dating Breaks Many People’s Hearts

INDIANAPOLIS — It was less than a minute after the race ended, after Lilly King won the 100 breaststroke to make her third Olympic team, that she swam across her lane for a hug the woman who finished third and did not qualify for Paris. next month.

This woman was the 2021 Olympic gold medalist in this event.

Lydia Jacoby, a then-Alaska teenager who was one of the delightful surprises of the Tokyo Olympics, missed qualifying for Paris by 0.27 seconds Monday night at the Olympic swimming trials in the United States. United.

King won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.43, followed by new upstart University of Virginia junior Emma Weber in 1:06.10. Jacoby finished third in 1:06.37.

The sport’s fickleness is such that only the top two qualify in each event, regardless of who won the gold medal last time.

“My heart absolutely breaks for her,” King said afterward of Jacoby. “That’s what this meeting is for. I like to tell people that the key to this competition is to not go too high or too low.

“As emotionally invested as I am in Lydia, it’s really, really hard to watch and move forward from that, but on the other hand, what a performance by Emma Weber and that’s kind of how it was. This meet will make your career and break your career in a minute. It’s the toughest competition in the world. It’s much tougher than any Olympics in my opinion. will be able to move forward and I always support her.

Jacoby, now 20 and swimming at the University of Texas, declined an interview request, a USA Swimming spokesperson said.

For the past eight years, King, 27, has ridden the waves of his sport, and it hasn’t always been easy. She won gold in the 100 breaststroke in Rio, but then a disappointing bronze in Tokyo in the race won by Jacoby. She added another gold in the 4 x 100m medley relay in Rio and two silvers in Tokyo in that relay and the 200 breaststroke.

She said that before the 2016 Olympics, she “felt pretty much invincible.” She felt the same way before Tokyo in 2021.

“That wasn’t necessarily the case tonight,” she said. “Last night in the semi-final I was very, very confident, and all day I was probably the calmest I’ve ever been before this final. And probably 30 minutes before diving, I was freaking out. So you know, it still affects me, the pressure is still there for this meeting, but yes, it’s a crazy meeting, obviously.

It was especially meaningful for King to qualify for his third Olympic team here in his home state. She grew up in Evansville, Indiana and swam at Indiana University. She said that when she first walked onto the pool deck at Lucas Oil Stadium, surrounded by football stands filled with thousands of swimming fans, she looked around to try everything to understand.

“I was like, oh my God, do other athletes feel like this all the time?

King said: “It’s just incredibly special. We love swimming here. This is what we do. We are a swimming state and we are really proud of it and I am happy to be able to represent us.

“You know, we think about California, Texas, like the big states, they’re good at swimming. But we’re not just good at basketball here. We are also good at swimming.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic swim trials: Lilly King wins 100 breaststroke