Reported by Lauren Neidigh.
WOMEN’S 200 BREAST
- NCAA record: Lilly King (2016)- 2:03.59
- American record: Lilly King (2016)- 2:03.59
- U.S. Open record: Lilly King (2016)- 2:03.59
- Championship Record: Lilly King (2016)- 2:03.59
- 2016 NCAA Champion: Lilly King (Indiana)- 2:03.59
- Lilly King (Indiana)- 2:03.19
- Kierra Smith (Minnesota)- 2:03.55
- Emily Escobedo (UMBC)- 2:05.20
Indiana’s Lilly King charged to the early lead in 58.32 and held on for the gold in a new American Record time of 2:03.19. Minnesota’s Kierra Smith came home hard with a 1:03.76 on the back half, taking 2nd in 2:03.55 as she also cleared the former NCAA Record.
UMBC’s Emily Escobedo and Texas A&M’s Sydney Pickrem battled down the stretch, but it was Escobedo who got her hands on the wall a nail faster to take 4th in 2:05.20 to Pickrem’s 2:05.23. NC State’s Kayla Brumbaum (2:05.55) and Texas’ Madisyn Cox (2:05.77) each broke 2:06 for the first time to take 5th and 6th respectively.
I agreed with some of her comments towards Efimova during the olympics, but it seems that our praise of that has encouraged her to act like that all of the time. Congrats to her on having incredible swims, and I have no doubt that she is one of the hardest workers in the sport, but she’s making herself very disliked because of this sort of arrogance. Everybody champ eventually gets dethroned. Have some humility.
Also, if you believe the comments saying she’s out of line are due to her being female, I’d like you to look at Lochte’s incident over the summer, where it was proven that all he actually did was pee in grass behind a gas station… Read more »
Please don’t resurrect the Lochte saga again. He lost sponsors because he lied to make himself look like a hero/badass.
The headline is sensationalized and lacks the context of watching the whole video. Lilly King is very gracious and expresses quite clearly how she thinks very highly of Kierra Smith’s ability (she even talks about how she tailored her race strategy specifically to handle Smith’s finishing speed). What she says is that she dove in the water for that race having made a decision to win, which is what any champion has to do. There is no room for doubt or hope or “I’ll try!” Screw that– victory is a decision.
And I’m not just some unconditional King fan, either,… Read more »
The headline with no context looks bad.
After watching the video and getting a better sense of what she was trying to convey, I don’t think there’s any reason to be upset at her comments.
She’s got a killer mindset, and it’s part of the reason why she has had such an immensely successful career so far. There is no “I want to” or “I hope I can,” there is only “I will.” The effect that that seemingly semantic difference will make over the course of a person’s life is immeasurable.
After reading the comments I thought it was going to be really bad. It wasn’t really. How many top tier athletes go in thinking they might have a small chance of winning?
Why would you read the comments before watching the video?
“Confidence is a prerequisite for success” -Richard Sherman. I don’t see this as cocky, the headline is out of context. Stepping up on the blocks with a swimmer like Kierra Smith gunning for you without that confidence you are probably not going to win. You have to believe in yourself and that is what makes great athletes great.
Your quoting Sherman? The guy who was so sensitive that he told Skip Bayless he couldn’t criticize him because Skip wasn’t a pro athlete. That’s your standard to measure king against?
I’m totally fine with this video. Looks worse taken out of context. I agree if she were a guy less would be made of it. Doesn’t anyone remember Gary Hall Jr?
I didnt see anything wrong with her comments
Watching the video, I didn’t take her comment as brashly as it sounds out of context in the headline. I took it as, she was nervous before prelims, but had a good prelim swim and knew she’d have a good race at night. She knows how to win, so she felt confident she would.
I don’t think she has the most grace in conveying her confidence, but I don’t think she’s a terrible person. I read another article about her and she said she doesn’t think she’s as talented as Yulia or many other top swimmers, and she makes up for it with hard work. So, I think her comments about working harder than anyone are just a reflection… Read more »
I personally love her brute honesty. It’s more refreshing than the Missy Franklin “i love everyone” cliches.
Hail to the King!
I by no means am a huge fan of that either,m; while Missy is naturally an incredibly nice person, it just comes off as a big PR stunt. But in Miss King’s case, you can be real and honest while staying humble. You don’t have to be on one extreme side of the spectrum or the other.