Sign up for our free daily Olympic newsletter: Today is the Olympic day. Get links to top stories, smaller events, things you might have missed while you were asleep, and the best stories from SI's reporters on the ground in Tokyo.
Mark and Ginny King first met on a baseball diamond in Charlestown, Indiana. The year was 1975 and they were 9 years old. Ginny played for the Jay Sea Food Store team, Mark for A1 Tax Service.
Mark was called to pitch from first base. Ginny was digging into the batter's box. Mark walked his future wife on four pitches.
The endearing trash talk between the two has been making waves ever since. Mark attributes the walks to being a lousy pitcher, the only time he played in a game in his career. Ginny believes the cause is something else, and she says her suffering has spread throughout the League. “They didn't market me,” she recalls. “Everyone was worried I was going to get hit.”
No one wanted to be the guy who couldn't take out the first girl in Charlestown Little League history. (Or, as Mark jokingly put it, “this girl who invaded my masculine space.”) When Ginny's father went to sign her up for baseball, he told her that girls couldn't play. I have been told. His answer was, “No, she's playing.” And so did she.
Is anyone surprised that this woman is Lily King's mother?
Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports
Lily is a two-time U.S. Olympian, two-time 2016 gold medalist, current 100-meter breaststroke world record holder, and world leader in swimming. She makes waves with her athleticism and her oratory. She's unfiltered, fearless, and can back up her spicy comments with her confidence like a cat burglar to the water.
And she certainly wears it naturally.
“My mom likes to joke that I'm the fourth generation of very strong women,” says Lily. “So I think it comes from my family and our actions. We don't really care what other people think about us and we're going to do what we decide to do. ” That’s just who I am. ”
Then say this with a little sarcasm to drive home the point: I enjoy being myself. ”
Four generations of strong women? Checked out. Ginny King, a small-town baseball player turned store teacher, is the daughter of Betty Ferguson, who owned a meat packing plant and taught school. Ginny is the granddaughter of Christine Ferguson, who moved to Louisville from Paducah, Kentucky to work in a cigar factory, where she eventually became a bookkeeper. Betty and Christine Ferguson grew up playing basketball in rural Kentucky, dating back to the 1920s. Back then, girls didn't really do that kind of thing.
A lineage of resolute women who resisted being pigeonholed has become a source of family pride with each generation. Lily is simply the newest and most famous.
“I think our family is generally very strong-willed,” Ginny says. “I've never been told, 'You can't do that because you're a girl.' Just work for it. The idea of growing up and becoming whatever you want to be is very freeing.
“Integrity has always been valued above conformity, and I think that's reflected in Lily. It doesn't matter what other people think. A lot of people say that, but I don't think young girls are going down that path.” It can be difficult to stand on your own, as long as you don't treat people badly.
Lily King grew up in Evansville, Indiana, the daughter of a college swimmer (Ginny) and track and field athlete (Mark), with an insatiable desire to compete. Even though she came from a small club in her age group, far from the traditional swimming hotbeds, she wanted to be great and she achieved it. It's been a stellar journey for the red-haired Rocket, from her time with the Newburgh Sea Creatures to the most consistently untouchable female swimmer in Katie Ledecky's specialty.
The United States and many other countries around the world were first fully introduced to Martin Luther King Jr. five years ago in Rio de Janeiro. That's when she created rivalries and almost revived the Cold War with the wag of her finger. Russia's Yulia Efimova caused controversy when she failed her drug test and entered the 2016 Olympic Games late. For the second time in her career, her first test resulted in a 16-month suspension for doping.
In the end, the second result was overturned and he was allowed to compete in Rio. When Efimova won the semifinal and stuck her No. 1 index finger in the air, King, who was watching on TV in the preparation room before the semifinal, took exception. She waved Dikembe Mutombo's finger back at the screen: “No.”
After winning her second semifinal, King was asked about the finger wave and said she was “not a fan” of Efimova being allowed to compete after being busted for drug fraud. This drew all eyes to the then 19-year-old King in the final match the following night, where she put in a stunning performance and won the gold medal by more than half a second.
“She had to perform well,” Mark says of the pressure Lily put on herself in Rio. “Then she dealt with a bunch of angry Russians.”
King continued to be unapologetically critical of drug cheating, which is still allowed in international competition, and there was some awkward tension at the post-race press conference. (Perhaps sensing the hostility on the podium, Rio's media coordinators at the swimming venue placed bronze medalist Katie Meili between King and Efimova.) Some cringed at King's brash demeanor; There were many people cheering.
A star and a lightning rod were born.
If anyone has questions about doping in swimming, King's words are the answer. At the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha last month, she reiterated her opinion when asked whether there would be lax drug testing internationally during the pandemic.
“We are certainly concerned, as always, but especially when it comes to COVID-19,” she said. “I can tell you that some of the countries that are less trusted are probably taking advantage of the time they have not been tested. Personally, I have been tested more than 20 times in the past year. So I know Americans, especially myself, are well taken care of. But unfortunately, Americans think they can control what they can control, but the world. Other countries are less confident.”
Follow-up question: “Do you think there will be cheaters at the Tokyo Olympics?'' Her flat answer is “as always.''
Is there a double standard at work? Would King's character be judged more highly if she were a man than a woman? She believes so. Either way, the only thing that surpasses her Shoot from the Hip reputation is her ability to perform at signature events.
Since 2016, King has held the keys to the big 100-breast race. She competed in NCAA championship swimming for four years at Indiana University, winning in its short-course version. She has won the most important national long course competition every year from 2016 until 2021, winning the Olympic Trials twice and the U.S. Championships twice. And she also won the most important international competitions during that time: the 2016 Olympics, the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, and the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships.
“The higher the stakes, the higher the pressure, the happier she is,” Indiana University coach Ray Ruth says.
King thus placed himself in a position to make history in Tokyo. The women's 100m breaststroke has never had back-to-back Olympic gold medalists, a statistical oddity that is heavily favored to be changed when competition begins on Sunday night in Japan. (The final will be on Tuesday morning.)
“Of course we would love to do that,” King said. “I'm not letting my guard down, but I'm in a lucky situation. There aren't many young kids who come to me. Maybe one, maybe one little Italian girl.”
The “little Italian girl” would be 16-year-old Benedetta Pilate. She is the only female swimmer on the planet who can cut the first half of 100 breasts as fast as King. But she couldn't bring it home like King. The defending champion is far ahead of the rest of the world, which is why she can afford to be borderline cheeky when talking about the event.
Dr. King's confidence extends beyond herself to the rest of Team USA, a fact she conveyed from the trials in Omaha in June. There she volunteered bulletin board materials for the rest of the world. “I think the girls can win all the individual gold medals if they compete as well as they can,” King said. “That would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? But when you actually look at it, I think it's a real possibility.”
It didn't take long for this statement to spread around the world. Within days, several Australian women were setting strong times at trials in their home countries and were among the favorites to win multiple races in Tokyo. But that's exactly what USA Swimming expects from King.
“I think Lily's answer says a lot about Lily and how passionate she is about Team USA and our team's success, not just the women's team, but really the entire Olympic team. I think it says a lot about what they have,” U.S. women’s coach Greg Meehan said. “I love that about Lily. That's why she's such a great person and athlete to have on our team.”
For the United States to win all women's medal races, King will also need to dominate another individual event, the 200-meter breaststroke. Joining her was her Indiana Swim Club teammate Annie Lazer, who became both her best friend and fierce rival.
The fact that Dr. King had Razor in Bloomington to train with him spoke to both her confidence and her desire to compete at her best every day. Don't get me wrong, Ruth would have given his star swimmer the power of veto if she wanted it. Rather, they have worked together to improve each other.
Lazor became an Olympic-caliber breaststroker, winning the 200 meters at the Olympic Trials. And King improved even more in the 200 meters, finishing second in Omaha and increasing her confidence heading into Tokyo after missing the semifinals in Rio. (“That doesn't happen anymore,'' she says.) But it was their interaction in Omaha that showed a different side of Lily King.
Reputation: The freckled assassin eats nails for breakfast and stomps on the necks of all his competitors. The facts have not fundamentally changed. Even though King has changed his notorious junk food diet, he's still in the mood to stare down his opponents in the preparation room. But for Razor, and that particular race, things were different.
Lazer's father passed away in late April, a tragic turn of events during intense training for the Olympic trials. King went to Michigan State to support his family and, along with other teammates at Indiana, promised Lazer's mother that they would do their best in practice to get Lazer through those dark times.
“Actually, it wasn't all sunshine and happiness, believe me,” Ginny King says of Lily and Razor's relationship. “They clashed with each other. But they have a friendship and they care about each other.”
In Omaha, King won the 100 breast early in the meet, but Razor finished a agonizing third as Alaskan teenager Lydia Jacoby finished second and was selected to the Olympic team. That added to the pressure on the 200 players. Behind the starting blocks, King turned to Razor and said: This exists. ”
Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports
And they did. Razor took command in the second half of the race, with the speedy King holding on for second place. When they touched the walls in this order, King's joy for Razor overshadowed her joy for herself. She put her arm around Razor and raised her arm in her air triumphantly. “It was a complete elation for Annie, her honest and genuine reaction,” Ruth says.
“I couldn't do this job without him,” Lazer said at the time.
“We like to think of it that way because we want to beat the crap out of each other, but we don't want anyone else to beat either of us,” King says. “We want to be 1-2, not anyone else.”
They will continue to aim for a finish in next week's 200m race, with Lazer coming in third in the world in 2021 and King sixth. By then, King will very likely become the first back-to-back gold medalist in Olympic history in the 100m breaststroke, but she will definitely want more than that.
“Lily has a great heart. She really cares about her teammates,” Ruth says. “But in Tokyo she'll want to beat Annie. All bets are off.”
Three generations of strong women before Lily King expected nothing less.
Other Olympic coverage:
• The game continues with new objectives.
• Meet Team USA athletes competing in Tokyo
• Previews of all Olympic sports
• Katie Ledecky is hungry for more challenges at the Tokyo Olympics
