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U.S. OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALS

June 28, 2016

Lilly King

Omaha, Nebraska

THE MODERATOR: We're joined up here by Lilly King, one of four first-time Olympians who won tonight. Lilly took it home in the 100 Meter Breaststroke. Lilly, just describe your emotions when you hit the wall, turned around and saw the scoreboard and saw the number one next to it on your name.

LILLY KING: Yeah, I mean, it's a great feeling. I just kinda felt that I was going to win tonight, and it happened, so I'm really excited with the time and to be an Olympian, and that's so cool to say right now, but, yeah, I'm super excited to be representing Team USA in Rio.

Q. Have the emotions started kicking up a little bit more in the half hour or so since you made it?
LILLY KING: Not yet, I'm still pretty calm for making my first Olympic Team, but I'm sure it will set in in the next day or two. I just got my letter from Frank saying I'm going to Rio, I'm really excited!

Q. When you were behind the blocks, could you tell this is the biggest race of my life, there is pressure, I need to do something here?
LILLY KING: Oh, of course, I was actually super calm for prelims and for semis, so I was kind of confused why that was going on because I'm usually, like, not nervous, but super hyper before my races, but today it did kind of set in. I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, this is the finals, don't screw up, don't screw up. I think that's what I was saying in my head.

Q. So you're going to have the 200 Breaststroke later in the week, an event that, like we talked about at NCAAs has really come on over the past year. How are you feeling going into that one? Is the pressure really off because it's sort of your "off" event and you made it already?
LILLY KING: Yeah, I think the pressure is off a little bit. The 100 has been my bread and butter event since, I guess, I was 10 years old, so I'm looking forward to having a good 200. It's a little bit different than yards, so my race strategy is still a little bit shaky, but hopefully I will be able to have a good swim and make the team in that as well.

Q. When was the first time you really started thinking about the Olympics?
LILLY KING: I would say the first time I started thinking about the Olympics I was 16. It was right after Junior Nationals. I had just broken a minute. I won. I think that was the time where I really realized I could hang with the people who had been beating me who made the Olympic Trials, so I guess that was that first moment of self-belief for me.

Q. What's your first memory of watching swimming in the Olympics?
LILLY KING: Geez, okay, I think my first memory of watching swimming in the Olympics was 2004 Games, so I think I was 7, but I don't remember specific things because I was 7 but I do remember watching. That was my first Olympics.

Q. (No microphone.)
LILLY KING: What was that? Sorry?

Q. Did you think about in 2004 as a 7-year-old, watching the Olympics, that maybe that could be me or I want to do that some day?
LILLY KING: Um, I guess so. I mean, I had just started swimming when I was 7, so it was cool, it was exciting and I guess I thought it would be neat to go, but, you know, I was just a little kid, so it wasn't completely implanted in my mind yet.

Q. You told us at the Mixed Zone that you hadn't really trained before you came to Indiana.
LILLY KING: Uh-huh.

Q. Tell us a little bit about what you have been doing during the past season to prepare and get to where you are now.
LILLY KING: Yeah, I really just started training with -- I finally had people to train with and race at practice and, so, basically right now I'm doing ten water workouts a week and three lifting sessions so that was way -- almost double what I was doing before I got to college, and I have two breaststroke workouts a week, and I get to race with all the guys, and it's just a great team atmosphere, so that's kind of where I am right now.

Q. So last night obviously you guys had a pretty big moment when Cody Miller made the Olympic Team. Talk about the emotions when you saw that happen and how you cared that energy from that.
LILLY KING: Yeah, I was really worried about Cody making it, but I knew he had it in him, and it was actually the heat right after my semifinals, so I came out, went in the Mixed Zone, did a couple of interviews and literally dropped all my stuff on the floor and ran up to the stands to watch Cody swim, and he made it, and it was a huge relief for all of us. I'm so excited for him, but I do think that took a little bit of pressure off me, because I knew that -- Cody is doing the exact same training that I'm doing. We basically swim every single workout together, so I knew that the work had pulled off for him, so it was going to probably work the same way for me.

Q. And then having Miranda there in the final, getting in because Margalis scratched. What did that mean to you as a breaststroke group?
LILLY KING: It was great, super excited for her to make the final. It was just a great moment for IU Breaststroke and going into the future I think people's eyes are going to be on us a little bit more than they have been in the past.

Q. What's it been like working with Ray? Can you give us a little bit of idea of what he's done for you over the past season?
LILLY KING: Yeah. Ray is probably one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met in my life, which can kind of get obnoxious at practice sometimes, but it does make it easier to perform so well in practice because our breaststroke group, basically, everything we do is all out at 200 pace, and it's probably, you know, 75, 100 yards of things at, you know, a certain pace, which is really difficult to perform that well in practice over and over and over again. But he's just so supportive through everything, and he really takes care of me, so I'm really thankful to have him.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Lilly.

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