Cali Condors phenom Lilly King has held on to her unbeaten streak this ISL season by winning the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke at the finale in Las Vegas.
King has raced and won a staggering 12 individual races this season, awarding her the title of the only swimmer not to lose an individual race (minimum of 4 races entered). King’s 100% win record has been a huge asset to the Condors this season, one which even teammate Caeleb Dressel hasn’t surpassed (he has an 87.5% win record).
Highest Winning Percentages, Individual Events, 2019 ISL Season:
- Lilly King: 100% (12-0)
- Daiya Seto: 100% (3-0)
- Caeleb Dressel: 87.5% (14-2)
- Guilherme Guido: 87.5% (7-1)
- Minna Atherton: 83.3% (10-2)
- Melanie Margalis: 63.6% (7-4)
- Sarah Sjostrom: 60.0% (12-8)
- Alexander Graham: 57.1% (4-3)
- Katinka Hosszu: 56.3% (9-7)
- Evgeny Rylov: 55.6% (5-4)
On day one in Vegas, King was up in the 50m and 200m breaststroke. She stormed to win the 50 in 28.90, setting a new American Record in the process. It was the 200 where King caused the most upset though. She touched 3rd at the 150 mark behind Energy Standard’s Jocelyn Ulyett and teammate Kelsey Wog, but delivered a powerful last 50 to come out on top. King’s time of 2:17.03 is a new U.S Open Record, with the previous mark of 2:17.69 belonging to Rebecca Soni, which she set in 2011.
This is a race plan we’ve seen before from King, as she did the same thing during the first ISL match in Indy. She swam a similar race then, holding back until the 150 mark and then blasting out the last 2 lengths to snatch the win.
In an interview with the Indy Star after the first match, King said “I’ve kind of started waiting a little bit to the last 50 and trying to bring it back. Luckily, I had enough in the tank today”. It seems King has had ‘enough in the tank’ all season, and although the Cali Condors finished 3rd overall, has proved to be a massive strength to her team throughout.
Did we set the minimum at 4 races to not include Seto on purpose?
We actually arbitrarily set the minimum at 5 races, because that essentially would’ve mandated a minimum 2 meet commitment, then it continued to be true at 4 races so we lowered it to 4.
I guess so
Lilly is just clutch. It sometimes feels like we sort of take this for granted. She competes HARD and loves it. Great to see.
What’s Adam Peaty’s winning percentage?
By my math, 50%. He won 4 races (100×3, 50×1) and swam 8 individual races (all 3 breaststrokes in Budapest and London, just the 50 and 100 in Vegas).