When she failed to qualify for the finals of the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2016 Rio Summer Games, Lilly King vowed she’d be better in the next Olympiad. Five years later, she followed through.
King captured her second medal of the Tokyo Games, taking silver in the 200 with a personal-best time of 2:19.92 to give IU its eighth medal of the Olympics. For King, not only was her time an individual record, it was the second fastest finish ever by an American swimmer in the event.
And it took a world record to beat her.
The Evansville product had a lead until the final 50 meters when South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker overtook her coming off the turn to capture the gold in a record time of 2:18.