U.S. International Team Trials: Lilly King Completes Breaststroke Sweep; Annie Lazor Edges Dobler, Jacoby for Second (VIDEOS)

Lilly King (right) and Annie Lazor celebrate after their 1-2 finish in the women's 100 breaststroke at the U.S. International Team Trials -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

U.S. International Team Trials: Lilly King Completes Breaststroke Sweep; Annie Lazor Edges Dobler, Jacoby for Second

At the Tokyo Olympics, Lilly King was handed her first defeat in the 100 breaststroke in almost six years as American teenager Lydia Jacoby claimed the gold medal and South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed silver. Now, King is heading to the World Championships as the favorite to capture a third-consecutive world title, while Jacoby narrowly missed out on a trip to Worlds. Instead, King’s Indiana training partner Annie Lazor qualified for Budapest as she rebounded from a disappointing third-place finish in her best event, the 200 breaststroke.

The 100 breast final at the U.S. International Team Trials saw King get off to a quick start and turn first after 50 meters, with Lazor and Jacoby only a few tenths behind. Jacoby was seven tenths off King’s pace at the halfway point, but her strength is on the second 50. Jacoby made a surge coming home, the same surge which helped her mine gold in Tokyo, but it was not quite enough to catch Lazor or Dobler.

King touched in 1:05.67 to secure the win, and in a blanket finish for second, Lazor touched in 1:06.12, seven hundredths ahead of Dobler in 1:06.19. Jacoby was two hundredths further behind in 1:06.21. Lazor’s comeback from a disappointing result earlier in the meet was similar to what unfolded at last year’s Olympic Trials, when Lazor rebounded from a third-place finish in the 100 breast to win the 200 breast ahead of King.

“It’s like a repeat of last year, and she’s stressing me out,” King said of Lazor’s impressive rebound performance. “It was awesome, though. She was talking the last couple weeks, saying, ‘I’m gonna make the 100. I’m gonna make the 100.’ She didn’t say, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna make the 200,’ but it was really cool to be able to have that moment again, kind of like we did last year, and I’m really glad I’m not going to Worlds by myself.”

When Lazor realized that she had finished second, she slammed the water in joy, and she and King embraced. Lazor held King’s arm in the air, just like King held Lazor’s arm aloft when Lazor won the 200 breast at last year’s Trials.

Lazor was not a favorite entering the 100 breast, which she considers a weaker event for her skillset than the 200-meter distance, and after missing the World Championship team in that event, it would have been easy to feel sorry for herself and her streak of poor luck. But that’s not how Lazor operates. According to Lazor, Indiana coach Ray Looze said, “I’ve never met a more resilient swimmer, but I’ve never had a more snake-bitten swimmer ever in my entire 30 years of coaching.” But in this 100 breast final, Lazor defied the odds and secured her spot.

“I just kind of woke up this morning super at peace. The 200 obviously did not go my way. 2:21 wasn’t a bad swim. It just didn’t go my way on Wednesday. I was ticked about it. I will not lie to you. I was ticket pissed, but that’s the competitor in me. I don’t think it would be right for me to be in the sport if I wasn’t upset. I just woke up this morning, and I was like, ‘I think I’m going to get second in the 100 breast today.’ I literally said that to my mom. I had no reason to think that way swimming against Lydia and Lilly,” Lazor said.

“I just felt better about today than I did about the 200. I felt like in the 200, I was just swimming with all this pressure of needing to do what I did last summer and reclaim my spot, whatever. Today, I just didn’t feel that way. I felt like I was swimming more freely.”

Meanwhile, the moment was a tough break for the 18-year-old Jacoby, who will not get the chance to back up her Olympic gold from Tokyo in international waters this year. While King was obviously happy for her training partner qualifying, she expressed sympathy for Jacoby and said she plans to reach out to her teenage rival.

“It is definitely a setback, but she has a bright future ahead of her, and she gets to go to college next year,” King said. “I know, especially from personal experience, that the year after the Olympics is really hard, and I can’t imagine going back to high school the year after the Olympics. It’s definitely a tough year, and we’ll get a chance to chat later and just check in and see how everything’s going. She’s definitely got many, many teams ahead of her.”

Regarding King’s personal ambitions in the 100 breast, she admitted after her first win of the Trials that she was targeting a sweep of the 50, 100 and 200-meter breaststroke events at this year’s Worlds, especially with many top competitors absent. Her season-best time of 1:05.32 is currently ranked second in the world in the 100 breast behind Japan’s Reona Aoki, and King expects better from herself in two months when she returns to Budapest, the site where she set the current 100 breast world record (1:04.13) in 2017.

“I think this was definitely a swim-for-place kind of race and not really a swim-for-time. It was such a tough heat. It was kind of a go-out-and-go-race-tough kind of day. The time wasn’t great, but I’ve got a little bit to work on for Worlds in a couple weeks, and I think it will turn out fine,” King said. “Obviously trying to go a best time is in the back of my head, but I haven’t really touched that time in about five years. I’d like to be 1:04-mid to my best time, so that’s kind of what I’m shooting for.”

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