Lilly King, one of the most outspoken swimmers on Team USA, is making her voice heard once again.
This time, it’s to criticize Team USA.
King and teammate Annie Lazor won silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter breaststroke, each putting up best times in the event. Following the win, King expressed her feelings over the American tendency to lessen the accomplishment of winning silver and bronze and downplay any medals that aren’t gold.
Many of the headlines from this Olympics have seen athletes “settle for silver,” something to which King took exception.
“Just because we compete for the United States, and maybe we have extremely high standards for this sort of thing, that doesn’t excuse the fact that we haven’t been celebrating silver and bronze as much as gold,” King said.
“Pardon my French, but the fact that we’re not able to celebrate silver and bronze is bulls—,” the 24-year-old continued, after winning silver in the 200m breastroke.
Lilly King, speaking it plain as always, regarding the American tendency to downplay medals that aren't gold: "Pardon my French, but the fact that we’re not able to celebrate silver and bronze is bullshit."
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) July 30, 2021
“I might be more happy with this medal than I’ve been with any of my previous medals, including the two golds in Rio,” King said. “We really should be celebrating those silver and bronzes, because those are some of the greatest moments of that athlete’s career, and why would we not celebrate that?”
Swimming star Katie Ledecky echoed the sentiments earlier in the week.
“There’s so many Olympians that have won silver or bronze that are really happy with that, and are deserving of a lot of praise,” Ledecky said. “Just because I won golds all the time leading into (my silver medal-winning race) doesn’t mean that the silver doesn’t mean something to me.”