Olympic and World Champion Lilly King has been feeling the pain of Olympic training, doing 300 and 400 meter breaststroke repeats in practice. Lilly, along with the IU Breaststroke Pro Crew, have been grinding this way while the college team tapered for conference and NCAA Championships. (The IU women won the Big Ten by half-a-point, and Lilly unpacks that at length in this interview.)
Lilly got a reprieve from Olympic training. A week before the Westmont Pro Swim, she flew to Brazil to capture a commercial. She didn’t share the name of the company, but the commercial will air this summer ahead of U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
Was the commercial shoot a mini taper? Not really. Lilly was tired from the travel heading into the last Pro Swim. Lilly swept the 100 and 200 breaststrokes in 1:06.68 and 2:25.97 in Westmont. At Indy Sectionals March 21st, Lilly captured a season-best 200 breaststroke with a 2:23.27.
Last year at 2023 World Champs Lilly didn’t make the podium, getting 4th twice in the 100 breast (1:06.02) and 200 breast (2:22.85). Of note, Lilly swam a 1:04.75 100 break and a 2;20.95 at U.S. Trials early in the summer.
PREDICTIONS
Lilly’s 27 years old, but she remains tough–a big year and big meet swimmer. With stiff competition, especially from Kate Douglass, I see Lilly getting back in the range of her PBs at U.S. Olympic Trials. I see Lilly racing to a 1:04.7 in the 100m breast and 2:20.6 in the 200 breast.
But who cares what I think? I wanna know what you think. Give me your best expert swimming analysis.
See Lilly King’s personal best times:
- 100 breast – 1:04.13
- 200 breast – 2:19.92
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
1.05.6 and 221.8
You can’t tell me that and not say her best time in a 400 br!
Why is the average swimswam take so toxic.
Y’all are talking like Lilly’s spending months doing these longer breast sets. Looze knows the training cycles for Lilly and has a timeline to stick to. Putting in some yardage doesn’t qualify as old school training within the scope of her training cycles. Plus, you don’t know HOW she is swimming these sets. Looze has a purpose for each workout that isn’t Lilly just doing garbage yardage.
What is the point of doing 300-400s breaststroke? She’s never going to race breaststroke that far all this is doing is making her swim slower for a longer distance then what her race speed would be
For glide and endurance work. Depending on the stroke rate it might do breath holding too.
It’s not something to do daily, but definitely helps.
Trials I see 1:04.8/2:21.4
Lily King and being boastful about how tough her training is.
Name a more iconic duo.
As usual, when men say what Lilly says, they get a pass.
It’s Lilly…in Indiana. Can’t predict results but I can say she will put on a hell of a race and leave it all in the pool!