Swimmer Lilly King Surprised By Proposal Moments After Qualifying For Olympic Event
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It was an eventful day for Lilly King.
The Olympic swimmer’s boyfriend, James Wells, proposed on Thursday, minutes after she qualified in Indianapolis to compete in the 200-meter breaststroke events at the Paris Olympics.
Wells told her it had been “so awesome” to watch her grow, both in and out of the pool, over the past four years.
“I don’t regret for a minute dropping my job and moving halfway across the country for us to move in together,” Wells said, in a video shared by NBC Sports. “It has been awesome, and I am very excited to see where this goes from here on out. So, dear, I was wondering, Lilly Camille King, will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes,” King said, as they embraced.
In an interview afterwards, King said she wasn’t expecting it at all.
“I was really confused,” she said, mentioning that someone “told me to put my hair down before I walked out instead of having it in my cap, and I was like, ‘OK, sounds good,’ and then I was just confused because you were down here.”
She placed second in Thursday’s 200-meter breaststroke event after Kate Douglass.
The five-time Olympic medalist had already landed a spot on Team USA for the 100-meter breaststroke.
She will be the first U.S. swimmer to compete in both the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke events at three consecutive Olympics, according to NBC News.
Wells, also a former Indiana University swimmer, said he chose this moment to propose because “having this be in her home state is so incredible.”
“All of us that swam at IU together, that did all of this stuff together, this is such a powerful swimming state, and it just means so much for her to be here in front of this crowd,” he said. “That’s the perfect opportunity.”
