swimming-women-d1 flag

Indiana Athletics | August 9, 2016

IU's King takes gold at Rio 2016

Lilly King (USA), a sophomore at Indiana, celebrates her victory in the women's 100m breaststroke final.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Indiana University sophomore swimmer Lilly King won the gold medal in the women's 100-meter breaststroke with an Olympic record time on Monday night at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

King won the gold medal with an Olympic record time of 1:04.93 that was previously set by Leisel Jones of Australia (1:05.17) in 2008. King is just the fourth woman to ever break 1:05 in the 100m breast and her mark is tied for the seventh-fastest time in history.

With King's medal on Monday night, the IU swimming and diving program has now won 64 medals in Olympic history, including 37 gold and 18 bronze. In total, Indiana University has won 94 total medals across all events.

King is the first Hoosier woman to medal in an individual Olympic swimming event in program history and the first IU woman to medal in a swimming event since Margaux Farrell in 2012, who won bronze on France's 4x200m freestyle team. 

King, a sophomore at Indiana, is the first Indiana swimmer to win gold in an individual event since 1976.
King's medal is the third swimming medal for the Hoosiers already in Rio, as IU alum Cody Miller won bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke and IU junior Blake Pieroni earned a gold medal as a member of Team USA's 4x100m freestyle relay team on Sunday.

The Olympic gold medal caps a dominant year for King in the 100m breast. As a freshman, King won the Big Ten Championship, the NCAA Championship and the Olympic Trials in the 100m breast prior to her gold medal in Rio. King also owns the Indiana school record, the American SCY record and the NCAA record in the event.

The Evansville, Ind. product will also swim the 200m breaststroke and the 4x100m medley relay for Team USA later in the week.

Women's 100 Breaststroke
1. Lilly King – 1:04.93 (Olympic Record)