WATCH: Lilly King gifts 100m breaststroke gold to young kids in a heartwarming gesture at U.S. Swimming Olympic Team Trials 2024

Lilly King, the current world record holder in the long-course 100m breaststroke, secured the Olympic spot for her third consecutive Olympiad by clocking 1:05.43 to win the 100m breaststroke competition. King shared a heartwarming moment with her young fans after the event as she gave them her Trials gold medal.

The Indiana native competed in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and punched her 2024 Paris Olympics ticket in front of her home crowd. Clocking a stellar time of 1:05.43, King finished ahead of Emma Weber who placed second in the trials.

While the two-time Olympian showcased a dominant performance, her interaction with a few young fans in the audience stole the spotlight. In a video posted by On Her Turf on X (formerly Twitter), King can be seen running to the girls who were cheering her on with a banner that read:

"GO Lilly King"

The swimmer gave her medal to them as a little token of love. Watch the video below:

King was previously a physical education teacher at Batchelor Middle School in Bloomington and shared in an interview in 2022 that she loved spending time with kids. She said (via Olympics.com):

"I get to play games with kids all day. The kids are awesome and I get to wear sweatpants to work."

King graduated with a major in physical education from Indiana University. The 27-year-old had a successful NCAA career, representing the Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team.

King made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She secured her berth for the quadrennial event by winning the 100m and 200m breaststroke events in the Swim Trials. In the 100m breaststroke finals at the Rio Olympics, she swam a winning time of 1:04.93 to set the Olympic record.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Lilly King clinched the silver in the 200m breaststroke and 4x400m medley respectively and the bronze in the 100m breaststroke event.

---

"Everything we did was a competition" - Lilly King on sibling rivalry

TYR Pro Swim Series San Antonio - Day 4 Lilly King

Lilly King has a younger brother, Alex, who swam as well. However, he pursued music and majored in the discipline.

King shared that sibling rivalry had shaped her mindset and claimed that everything they did was a competition, be it studies or cleaning the room. She said (via Olympics.com):

"Everything we did was a competition, whether it was doing our homework or piano lessons or cleaning our room. Any time my brother and I could race each other, we were racing."

King hails from an athletic family. Her father, Mark, was a cross-country runner representing Indiana State University and her mother Ginny King was a swimmer, representing Illinois State University and Eastern Kentucky University.