With one finger wag at the 2016 Rio Olympics, swimmer Lilly King became a viral sensation. And by the time the then-19-year-old swimmer left the Games with two gold medals in hand — one for the 100-meter breaststroke and another for the 4×100-meter medley relay — she was one of the sport’s biggest stars.
At the time when King wagged her finger at rival Yulia Efimova — the Russian breaststroker who had previously been penalized for anti-doping violations — she didn’t realize the moment was captured on camera.
But, as she told NBC Sports, it highlighted her “alter ego” in the ready room, which significantly differs from her personality away from the pool, and now, she embraces being the “bad guy in the pool” because she says it’s empowering.
“I always like to say that I like to win the race before it starts,” King recently told For The Win.
“I like to know that I’m in control of the heat. I like to know that people are scared to race me, and knowing that your competitors are feeling all those different emotions before potentially the biggest race of their life makes you feel pretty good about yourself. So definitely, at least for me, makes me feel very sure of what I’m doing. So I think it just gives me confidence and helps me race faster.”
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Now 24 years old and headed to her second Olympics, whatever King is doing for herself (and to her opponents) is working.
The Evansville, Indiana native qualified for Tokyo in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke (she finished 12th in the latter in Rio). She’s the reigning world champ in the 100 and the 50-meter breaststroke — the 50 isn’t offered at the Olympics — and won the trials final in the 100 with a time of 1:04.79, which is nearly seven tenths off her own 1:04.13 world record.
King also owns five of the seven fastest times in the world this year in the 100, so she’s a strong favorite to successfully defend her Olympic title.
She also predicted that the American women could win every individual Olympic gold medal.
“What I love about what Lilly said is that is who she is,” said Greg Meehan, Team USA’s women’s swimming head coach.
“That is her personality. She is competitive. She is someone that we want on Team USA. She’s great on relays. And regardless of the context of that, the reality is that competitive spirit is what Team USA is all about, and as we get into international competition, that competitive spirit is what drives us.”
Annie Lazor lost her father a couple months ago and her teammate Lilly King made a promise to get her on the U.S. Olympic Team.
Tonight, Annie Lazor qualified for the #TokyoOlympics and celebrated alongside her teammate. #SwimTrials21 (📽️ @NBCOlympics)pic.twitter.com/urEX0e7ETB
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) June 19, 2021
Before King competes, to be in control of her heat, she’s focused on psyching out her opponents, especially if she’s going against Russian rival Efimova. Whether she’s making extra noise, staring down other swimmers, asking them odd questions or pacing back and forth, the goal is to distract her competitors.
“Typically, when I’m racing Yulia, it’s a lot of just kind of staring at her and doing crazy things in the ready room,” King said. “I think staring at people is probably one of my favorite things to do.”
She said her staring freaks other swimmers out a bit and noted that “the showmanship of it all just kind of comes naturally” to her in the ready room or behind the blocks.
King also likes to be the last one to get up on the block before her races begin.
“That’s one of my I feel like kind of like my trademark things at this point,” she said. “I like I like to be in control of the heat, and I like everyone else to know they’re waiting for me. So that’s kind of one of my one of my go-tos.”
However, King said her efforts to psych out her opponents don’t impacter her own performances. When she gets up on the block to start a race, she said she’s “on autopilot” as her body takes over to churn out some of the fastest breaststroke times ever.
“If people are scared to race me, they’re not going to swim as fast,” King said. “I would definitely say [embracing a bad-guy mentality is] more male-dominated than female, but I’ve never really been one to follow the normal path.”
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