{"id":620524,"date":"2025-08-08T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=620524"},"modified":"2025-08-08T05:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:00:03","slug":"a-farewell-to-lilly-king-an-american-swimming-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/a-farewell-to-lilly-king-an-american-swimming-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"A Farewell to Lilly King, an American Swimming Icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Farewell to Lilly King, an American Swimming Icon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lilly King spent the last two days of her professional swimming career doing what she\u2019s done so well for the last decade.<\/p>\n

On the penultimate day of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, she took to social media to snipe back at Michael Phelps<\/strong> and Ryan Lochte,<\/strong> who a day earlier had held a mock Instagram-stories funeral for USA Swimming\u2019s dominance.<\/p>\n

On the last day of the meet, she swam to gold, as part of the prelims squad of the American women\u2019s medley relay.<\/p>\n

Those two traits \u2013 the fierce defense of herself and her teammates<\/a>, and the ability to back her talk in the water \u2013 have defined King. The plethora of medals she\u2019s collected makes her as a legend. The brashness with which she\u2019s did it cements her status as an iconic part of American swimming history.<\/p>\n

The numbers speak for themselves. King swims off into the sunset with six career Olympic medals over three editions. She\u2019s a 14-time medalist in both versions of the World Championships, long- and short-course, with 19 total gold medals.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Team USA (@teamusa)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n