The Legacy of Lilly King, and What Comes Next for United States Breaststrokers

We are officially in our last month of the Lilly King breaststroke era, as she announced her retirement in May.

King has been the cornerstone of the American women’s breaststroke scene since she won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but she had been breaking breaststroke records for a few years prior to that summer.

In December of 2013, we published our first article about the breaststroker, after she broke the 15-16 National Age Group record in the 100 breaststroke at Winter Juniors. She finished in 59.67 to mark her first time under a minute in the event, and to break the hours old record set by Lindsey Horejsi in the prelims of the event.

At the end of the article, SwimSwam Editor-in-Chief Braden Keith noted that “King may not yet be a household name…”. Little did anyone know at the time that she would eventually become one of the most well-known swimming names in the United States.

King would continue making a name for herself, earning the 9th spot on our class of 2015 rankings, ultimately committing to swim at Indiana, and setting the Indiana High School State Record in the 100 breaststroke along with a few more NAG records. She was also a part of the United States 4×100 medley relay that set the World Junior record in 2014.

It was during her freshman year at Indiana, though, that she really started becoming the breaststroke powerhouse we know her as today.

King started her collegiate career by breaking the Big Ten record in the 100 breaststroke at her first ever conference meet in 2016, and then she went on to break the 200 record too, ultimately earning the Big Ten Freshman and Swimmer of the Year titles.

She followed up that conference performance with an absolutely monstrous NCAA Championships, where she broke the NCAA record in the 100 breaststroke prelims, and then broke the 200 breaststroke record the very next day.

That summer, she would qualify for her first Olympic Team, and her first major international competition, winning the 100 and 200 breaststroke events at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. At the Games, she won her first Olympic gold medal, swimming 1:04.93 in the 100. This meet was also the beginning of her “feud” with Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova, and the beginning of her advocacy for clean sport.

The next summer at the 2017 World Championships, King broke the 100 breaststroke World Record, setting the mark at 1:04.13, which still stands as the record today. She also broke the 50 breaststroke World Record, swimming 29.40 to win the gold.

Over the rest of her college career, she went on to win 8 individual NCAA titles, defending her 100 and 200 breaststroke titles every year, graduating in 2019 with the 100 and 200 breaststroke NCAA records. The 100 record still stands today.

She has also maintained an incredible level of excellence at the international level over the last ten years, winning at least one individual medal at every World Championships meet she has competed at since 2017.

Outside of the Olympics and World Championships, King was a member of the Cali Condors, one of ten ISL club teams. In the inaugural ISL season, King was the only swimmer to be completely undefeated, winning 12-out-of-12 races. Over the next two seasons, King would remain with the Condors where she would never lose a 100 breaststroke race.

In her career, she has amassed six Olympic medals (three gold, two silver, one bronze), 13 World Championships medals (11 gold, two silver), and 14 SC World Championships medals (seven gold, five silver, two bronze). She still has a few medal chances remaining this month in Singapore at her final World Championships.

With U.S. breaststroke losing King as a powerhouse and staple in the breaststroke events, where do they go from here?

The “Old” Guard

Lydia Jacoby, the 2021 Olympic Gold medalist, was looking like she would become the next breaststroke star for the U.S. women, but after missing the Olympic team last year, she has been taking an extended break from competition.

There is plenty of other talent in the breaststroke events, however, starting with the SCM 200 breast World record holder and Olympic Champion, Kate Douglass. Douglass actually beat King at the 2025 U.S. Nationals in the 100 breaststroke, swimming a lifetime best 1:05.79. This time currently ranks her 4th in the World this year, and is a good sign for American relays in particular. Douglass is likely not a long term solution for the United States, however, as she is already two Olympics deep.

Douglass also does not swim the 50 breast, and with the 50s being added to the Olympic schedule, it’s an important event to keep in mind. King won the event at the 2025 Nationals, and there was a tie for 2nd behind her between McKenzie Siroky and Emma Weber.

Weber is a rising senior at the University of Virginia, and she is more well rounded as a breaststroker, earning a spot in all three breaststroke finals at the U.S. Championships last month at 2nd in the 50 (30.43), 4th in the 100 (1:06.55), and 6th in the 200 (2:27.69). She did not earn a World Championships berth in any of her events, but she did make the Olympic team last summer in the 100, finishing 23rd at the Games.

Alex Walsh is another broad range breaststroker, but she has been open about how she is not sure how much more swimming she has in the tank, and she also has two Olympics under her belt. She swam well at Nationals, finishing 5th in the 50 breast (30.54), 3rd in 100 breast (1:06.50), and 2nd in the 200 breast (2:22.45), and will help add depth and speed to the breaststroke events as long as she continues competing.

The NCAA “New” Kids

Siroky, who tied for 2nd in the 50, was a freshman at the University of Tennessee last year. She ultimately won the swim off, earning the spot on the World Championships roster in the 50 breaststroke (30.05) this summer. Siroky is a straight sprinter, finishing 6th in the 100 breast finals (1:07.66), and not racing the 200. At this season’s NCAAs, she finished 3rd in the 100 behind Alex Walsh and Irish swimmer Mona McSharry.

Piper Enge, a rising Texas sophomore, could be another answer, though, like Siroky, they primarily swims the sprint events, finishing 18th in the 200 (2:30.13) at Nationals last month, compared to their 6th place finish in the 50 (30.65) and their 5th place finish in the 100 (1:07.37).

UNC’s Skyler Smith (30.47) and Stanford’s Lucy Thomas (31.02) placed 4th and 7th respectively in the 50 breaststroke and they raced again in the ‘B’ final of the 100 breaststroke where Smith finished 9th (1:08.58) and Thomas finished 10th (1:09.07). They could be threats in the 50 breaststroke, but they would have to have significant drops to find themselves in contention in the 100.

In the 200, Virginia swimmers Katie Christopherson (2:26.65) finished 3rd and Leah Hayes (2:27.62) finished 5th. Neither swam the 100 breaststroke. If Walsh retires before the Olympics, like she has said she is considering, they could easily slide into that 2nd position behind Douglass.

From the other side of the country, there two more ‘A’ finalists in the 200 with Abigail Herscu from Cal (4th- 2:26.65) and Lucy Bell (7th- 2:27.72) from Stanford. Herscu finished 12th in the 100 and did not swim the 50, and Bell didn’t swim any other distances of breaststroke.

The Rising Stars

Shifting our attention to younger athletes, there are some strong talents emerging, though they might need a few years before they are able to replace Lilly King.

There are a handful of recently graduated high school seniors with elite breaststroke times that could find themselves in NCAA scoring positions, and developing into international threats given the right circumstances. Elle Scott will be swimming at Cal in the fall, and her 58.56 in the 100 breast and 2:08.62 in the 200 breast are incredibly strong SCY. She swam all three breaststroke events at Nationals, finishing 8th in the 100 (1:08.99), 13th in the 50 (31.64), and 41st in the 200 (2:36.48).

Addie Robillard (LCM 32.40/1:08.79/2:27.50)  and Bella Brito (LCM 32.66/1:10.62/2:35.87) are also strong high school breaststrokers to watch in the coming years to see how they develop, especially with both making huge improvements in some of their SCY events this year.

Rachel McAlpin and Kayda Geyer are both rising seniors who also placed in the top 8 at Nationals in breaststroke events. McAlpin finished 8th in the 50 (31.15) and 29th in the 100 (1:11.06), and Geyer took 8th in the 200 (2:28.79), 28th in the 50 (32.58), and 15th in the 100 (1:10.13).

In the newly 15-year-old age-group, we have three girls who are trading National Age Group records like hotcakes. Grace Koenig-Song holds the 13-14 NAG record in both the SCY and LCM 50 breaststroke events, and she earned finals swims in all three events last month. She finished 29th in the 50 (32.56), 28th in the 100 (1:10.88), and 22nd in the 200 (2:32.79).

Karina Plaza broke the 13-14 year-old 100 and 200 NAG records in February, becoming the first 14-year-old to ever break a minute in the 100 breaststroke, swimming 59.94. At Nationals, she earned finals swims in both the 100 and the 200, finishing 26th in the 100 (1:10.24) and 200 (2:33.66).

*At US Nationals, the ‘D’ Final (places 24-32) is 18U swimmers only

Plaza broke Mikayla Tan’s 200 breast record, which Tan set in December at the 2025 Winter Junior Nationals, when she swam 2:09.58 to finish 3rd. Tan did not swim at Nationals last month, but at the Sacramento Pro Swim Series in April, she finished 3rd in the 50 (32.33) and 200 (2:29.45) breaststrokes, and 6th in the 100 (1:09.98). Her 200 breaststroke time would have been 9th in prelims, and her 100 would have been 14th.

All three girls are somewhat recently 15, and they have serious potential if they continue to drop and develop the way they have been.

This is not a comprehensive list of potential US breaststrokers, and, as much as we might wish we did, the SwimSwam writers do not have a crystal ball to tell us who will rise to the occasion in the coming years. The talent is pretty deep in women’s breaststroke, but it seems likely that the same athlete will not be swimming all three breaststroke distances like we saw during King’s prime.