Swimmer Lilly King Is Engaged to James Wells After Olympic Trials

Shortly after Olympic hopeful Lilly King made Group USA, her boyfriend, James Wells, shocked her with a proposal.

“Getting to look at you during the last 4 years, each out and in of the pool, simply to see you develop has been so superior,” Wells said proper after King, 27, hopped out of the pool on Thursday, June 20. “I don’t remorse for a minute dropping my job and shifting midway throughout the nation for us to maneuver in collectively. It’s been superior.”

He continued, “I’m very excited to see the place this goes. So, expensive, I used to be questioning: Lilly Camille King, will you marry me?”

King excitedly mentioned “Sure, sure” earlier than embracing her newly minted fiancé and attempting on her diamond ring.

King completed in second place behind Kate Douglass throughout the 200-meter breaststroke trials throughout the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials at Indiana’s Lucas Oil Stadium. Upon getting her silver medal, she flashed her ring.

“Information travels quick however I’m engaged,” King gushed in a press convention, telling reporters that she was caught off-guard by Wells’ proposal. “I used to be actually confused ‘trigger Annie [Lazor] instructed me to place my hair down earlier than I walked out as an alternative of getting it in my cap, and I used to be like, ‘OK, sounds good,’ after which I used to be simply confused as a result of [James was] down right here.”

King additionally certified for the 100-meter breaststroke race on the Paris Olympics subsequent month, which shall be her third Video games look. King beforehand competed in 2016 and 2020, incomes two golds, two silvers and one bronze medal, collectively.

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Making it to the Olympics is a feat that numerous athletes dream of their complete lives. After years of blood, sweat and tears, collaborating in essentially the most prestigious athletic occasion on the earth is a once-in-a-lifetime second. Some athletes compete one time within the Olympic Video games and dangle up their hats, stepping gracefully into retirement. […]

The Paris 2024 Video games shall be King’s final time within the competitors.

“I shall be watching in Los Angeles [in 2028], and I’m good with that call,” she instructed the Indianapolis Star earlier in June, saying her retirement. “I can’t be completed after this summer season, however I can’t be going one other 4 years. I’ll be cheering on the group.”

Wells can be a swimmer. After showing on the Indiana College swim group as a dash specialist till his 2014 commencement, he raced within the 100-meter males’s backstroke throughout the Wave 1 Olympic Trials in 2021 however has not competitively swam since then.

King began on IU’s swim group in 2015, one yr after Wells graduated.

“All of us that swam at IU, collectively, did all these items collectively,” Wells instructed reporters on Thursday. “That is such a strong swimming state, and it simply means a lot to her to be right here in entrance of this crowd.”

He added, “Having this be in [Lilly’s] residence state is so unbelievable.”