U.S. swimmers’ redemption at worlds continues: 3 more golds

On BUDAPEST, HUNGARY — a night of redemption for American swimmers, Lilly King, Ryan Murphy and the men’s 4x200 freestyle team claimed three more gold medals for the United States at the world swimming championships Thursday.

King atoned for missing out on the podium in the 100 breaststroke by winning the 200 breaststroke final for the first time.

“Any time I have a bad swim, I feel like I got a lot of haters out there. And just to be able to prove them wrong gets me going,” King said.

The 25-year-old finished strongly to clock 2:22.41 and beat Australia’s Jenna Strauch by 0.63. Kate Douglass claimed the bronze for the U.S.

King previously won golds in the 50 and 100 breaststroke at the 2017 and 2019 worlds.

“It’s really nice to be able to kind of complete the set and I guess I’m a decent swimmer now,” King joked of her 10 medals — nine of them gold — from worlds. Only Caeleb Dressel, with 15, has claimed more since 2017.

Murphy got the Americans’ second gold of the evening in the men’s 200 backstroke, clocking 1:54.52 to beat Britain’s Luke Greenbank by 0.64 seconds and U.S. teammate Shaine Casas by 0.83.

At 26, Murphy is another relative veteran on the American team. It was his first gold from an individual event at a words, adding to his four from relays.

“I think back to 2014, I was the youngest guy in the team and I had some really good people that were leading us back then. And so it’s cool to think that I’m in a position to mentor the young guys now,” Murphy said. “We’ve got an incredible legacy at USA Swimming. It’s cool to try to pay that forward.”

In the relays, the Americans had some making up to do in the men’s 4x200 freestyle after failing to finish among the medals for the first time ever in that race at the Olympics last year.

Drew Kibler, Carson Foster, Trenton Julian and Kieran Smith duly obliged by clocking 7:00.24 in Thursday’s final to finish more than three seconds ahead of the Australian and British teams.

The Brazilian team looked like claiming a place finish but lacked the finishing power of its rivals, with Mack Horton clinching silver for the Australians and Tom Dean the bronze for Britain — the country’s 100th medal at a worlds.

“That’s an amazing achievement,” Dean’s teammate James Guy said. “And that’s really great that we delivered it, I’m so happy about this.”

Australians claimed the other two golds available.