American swimming star Lilly King announces final US competition

American swimming star Lilly King announces farewell season, final US competition

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Lilly King, of the United States, competes in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke semifinal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 28, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

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Lilly King, of the United States, waves ahead of the women’s 100-meter breaststroke final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 29, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

By JANIE McCAULEY

American three-time Olympic swimming star and world record holder Lilly King has announced the upcoming Toyota National Championships in Indianapolis will be her final meet on U.S. soil as she prepares to call it a career at the conclusion of the 2025 season.

The meet will run Tuesday through Saturday. A longtime breaststroke stalwart, King announced her plans Saturday on Instagram and said swimming her final race in the U.S. in her home state and a pool she’s known since her youth “has always been important to me.”

“Well, folks, my time has come. This will be my final season competing,” she wrote. “I’m fortunate heading into retirement being able to say I have accomplished everything I have ever wanted in this sport. I feel fulfilled.”

The 28-year-old King holds the world record in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:04.13, set at the 2017 world championships. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 100 breast at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and also captured Olympic titles on relays in Rio and at her final Olympics last year in Paris.

The U.S. women’s 4x100 medley relay set a world record in 3:49.63. Regan Smith, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske were her teammates in the Americans’ victory over defending Olympic champion Australia.

“Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,” King said afterward.

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At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, King earned silver medals in the 200 breaststroke and 4x100 medley relay and a bronze in the 100 breast.

She narrowly missed the medal stand in the 100 breast in Paris, with one-hundredth of a second separating bronze medalist Mona McSharry of Ireland and the fourth-place tie between King and Italy’s Benedetta Pilato in 1:05.60.

For King, being home in Indiana next week will mean so much.

It was also in Indianapolis last June during the U.S. Olympic swimming trials that boyfriend and former Indiana University swimmer James Wells proposed to her just off the pool deck — and she said yes.

“I have been racing in the IU Natatorium since I was 10 years old,” she wrote. “From state meets, to NCAAs, Nationals, and anything in between, this pool has been my home. I didn’t quite make it 20 years (only 18) of racing in Indy, but this is as close as I’m gonna get! I look forward to racing in front of a home crowd one last time.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)