Lilly King, a 2016 Olympic champion and world record holder in the 100m breaststroke, announced that 2025 will be her final season as a competitive swimmer.
King, 28, previously said last year that she would retire some time between the 2024 and 2028 Olympics.
“Well folks, my time has come,” was posted Saturday on her social media. “This will be my final season competing. 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 Indiana native King’s final domestic meet will be the Toyota U.S. Championships next week in Indianapolis, according to the post.
“It has always been important to me that my last meet in the US be at the pool that started it all,” the post read. “I have been racing in the IU Natatorium since I was 10 years old. 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.”
King, a six-time Olympic medalist, made the U.S. team for a major international meet every year from 2016 through 2024, save 2020, when there were no major meets due to COVID-19.
Her biggest splash came that first year in 2016. After her freshman season at Indiana, King won the Olympic 100m breast over Russian rival Yuliya Yefimova.
King captured a world title in all three breaststrokes — 50m, 100m and 200m — and has owned the 100m breast world record since 2017.
At the Paris Games, King tied for fourth in the 100m breast, placed eighth in the 200m and was part of a gold-medal-winning women’s 4x100m medley relay in her last Olympic race.
