In a night of redemption for American swimmers, Lilly King, Ryan Murphy and the men's 4×200 freestyle relay team won three gold medals Thursday at the Worlds of Swimming.
After missing the podium in the 100m breaststroke, King vindicated himself by winning the 200m final in the same style.
“Whenever I have a bad swim, I feel like I have a lot of naysayers out there. And just being able to prove them wrong excites me," King said.
The 25-year-old finished strong with a time of 2:22.41, beating Australian Jenna Strauch by 63 hundredths. Kate Douglass took bronze for the United States.
King previously won gold medals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the 2017 and 2019 worlds.
“It's really nice to be able to complete the set and I guess I'm a decent swimmer now,” King joked of her 10 medals — nine of them gold — at world championships.
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Murphy, meanwhile, secured the second gold of the night for the Americans in the men's 200m backstroke.
He set a time of 1:54,52 to beat Britain's Luke Greenbank by 64 hundredths and fellow countryman Shaine Casas by 83 hundredths.
In the relay, the Americans had to make up in the men's 4×200 freestyle after going without a medal for the first time in that race at last year's Olympics.
The Australians claimed the other two golds in dispute at the Duna Arena in Budapest on Thursday.
Australian world record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook won the men's 200m breaststroke in a time of 2:07.07. The Japanese Yu Hanaguruma and the Swedish Erik Persson completed the podium.
AP
