Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lilly King had an interesting few minutes during the Olympic trials on Thursday.
King had already qualified for her third race on Monday with a first-place finish in the 100-meter breaststroke, but was given the opportunity to make history with the 200-meter race. A first or second place would have made King the first American to qualify for both races at three consecutive Olympics.
King made it happen. Hardly.
She fell clearly behind Alex Walsh down the final length, but managed to close the distance in the final meters to beat the 22-year-old by 0.45 seconds. Both finished well behind first-place Kate Douglass, who has won the event for the past two world championships.
Douglass fell 0.16 seconds short of beating her own American record.
It’s clear King left the pool knowing she had some work to do if she wanted to match or better her silver medal in the 200 meters in Tokyo.
Then her boyfriend James Wells gave her a lot more to think about as she walked away as he proposed. King, who apparently got a warning when she was told to let her hair down, immediately said yes.
Wells’ proposal:
“Just watching you grow has been so amazing and I don’t regret for a minute that I quit my job and moved halfway across the country to live together. It’s been amazing and I’m really excited to see where this So, honey, I was wondering: Lilly Camille King, will she marry me?
One might imagine that King and Wells will wait until after Paris before starting wedding planning.
King rose to prominence at the 2016 Games when she defeated Russia’s Yuliya Yefimova, who had previously been banned for doping, in the 100m breaststroke. Surprisingly, she fell short of gold in Tokyo, where she earned silver in the 200 meters and 4×100 meter medley relay, plus bronze in the 100 meters behind compatriot Lydia Jacoby.
A return to the top in Paris would be quite a story, but King is already assured of a very special moment in 2024.
