{"id":477218,"date":"2021-06-15T18:09:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T01:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=477218"},"modified":"2021-06-15T20:09:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T03:09:01","slug":"u-s-olympic-trials-lilly-king-wins-womens-100-breaststroke-alaskas-lydia-jacoby-2nd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-olympic-trials-lilly-king-wins-womens-100-breaststroke-alaskas-lydia-jacoby-2nd\/","title":{"rendered":"Lilly King Rides Wave of Confidence to Second Olympics as Alaska’s Lydia Jacoby Makes History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lilly King<\/strong> expected to win. She always expects to win.<\/p>\n

That confidence doesn’t come easy to most, and it wasn’t easy for King, but she finally figured out a mindset that works for her.<\/p>\n

“I love those high-pressure situations. I go in confident and I know what is going to happen even if everyone else doesn’t,” Lilly King said.\u00a0 “Going in not being sure of myself is not a good way to race.”<\/p>\n

King became a two-time Olympian by winning the 100-meter breaststroke on Tuesday in Omaha at the Olympic trials.<\/p>\n

That she was sure of<\/a>, even if the race itself didn’t go as well as she had hoped.<\/p>\n

What she wasn’t sure of was who would be joining her on the journey to Tokyo.<\/p>\n

It turns out, it was the person who had the longest journey to get to Omaha<\/a> \u2014 Alaska’s Lydia Jacoby<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“I love to see more representation of states,” King said. “That is a big deal in her hometown and her home state. I am really excited for her. It\u2019s kind of what I expected coming in but I did not expect Lydia to have that race and I\u2019m excited to have a new training partner and excited to see what we can do.”<\/p>\n

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Lilly King. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

King cruised to the win in 1:04.79, the fastest time in the world this year, but it was a race King herself called “sloppy.”<\/p>\n

“I was not very happy with a that race strictly on performance,” King said. “That means I have more to work on in the tank for the big dance.”<\/p>\n

And now she will have a new dancing partner.<\/p>\n

“Lydia and I swim opposite races. I am high tempo front end and she is low tempo back end,” King said.<\/p>\n

That back-end surge by Jacoby (1:05.28) gives Alaska its first Olympian in swimming once the second places are made official later in the week.<\/p>\n

“I can\u2019t tell you how much it means to me,” Jacoby said. “I\u2019m so excited.\u00a0It means so much to me to be able to represent my state at a meet like this. And I\u2019m so excited to now represent my country as well. It\u2019s amazing.\u00a0I knew it was going to be a very high emotion meet because so many people have so much riding on it. I came into this meet, obviously with expectations for myself but knowing that I have so much of my career ahead of me, so just trying to keep that in perspective. It means so much to me that that headspace worked out and I was able to get past the bigger emotions and focus on my races.”<\/p>\n

King is looking forward to being someone Jacoby can lean on as a first-time Olympian. After all, King had plenty of veterans make an impact on her.<\/p>\n

“I really enjoy being on the other side of thing. I was really fortunate to have several veteran Olympian be mentors to me, Missy (Franklin), Katie Meili, Schmitty (Allison Schmitt)<\/strong> and (Elizabeth) Beisel<\/strong>,” King said. “I am excited to be able to do that same thing they did for me.”<\/p>\n

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Lydia Jacoby. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

The Race<\/strong><\/p>\n

King turned with the lead and was able to hold off the field with the fastest time in the world this year. Annie Lazor<\/strong>, King’s training partner, ended up third with a 1:05.60, ahead of Bethany Galat<\/strong> (1:05.75) behind Alaska’s history maker, who put together the second-fastest time in the world this year (1:05.28).<\/p>\n

Many of the biggest names in the breaststroke made the final, some easier ways than others.<\/p>\n

2016 Olympian Molly Hannis<\/strong> was reinstated to the final. Hannis was originally disqualified last night for \u201ca dolphin kick violation\u201d and her DQ was overturned via video review, pushing the final to nine people.<\/p>\n

USA national team members Bethany Galat, Emily Escobedo<\/strong> and Micah Sumrall<\/strong> were in the final, along with former NCAA runner-up Miranda Tucker. <\/strong><\/p>\n