BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Former Indiana swimming and diving standout Lilly King won her first-ever 200-meter breaststroke world title at the 19th FINA World Championships on Thursday (June 23) in Budapest and made American swimming history while doing so.
Per Braden Keith, editor-in-chief of the swimming and diving news website SwimSwam, “King is the first American swimmer, male or female, to win a career treble of golds in the 50-100-200 [meter] of any stroke at the long course world championships.â€
The Evansville, Indiana, native earned her 15th-career world championship medal and 13th gold. She previously doubled as the 50-and-100-breaststroke winner at both the 2017 and 2019 championships.
King completed the triple Thursday, swimming the 200-meter race in 2:22.41. She blazed through the final 50 meters in 36.36 to pass Australian Jenna Strauch (2:23.04) and fellow American Kate Douglass (2:23.20).
The 200-meter breaststroke victory is King’s second gold of this year’s championships after she swam in the preliminary of Team USA’s 4×100-meter mixed medley relay on Tuesday. King placed fourth in the 100-meter breaststroke on Monday, finishing in 1:06.07, and will swim the preliminary of her final event, the 50-meter breaststroke, on Friday.
King competed at IU from 2016-19 and won all eight NCAA titles combined in the 100-and-200-yard breaststroke events during that span. She is also a four-time Olympic medalist between the 2016 and 2020 games.
