INDIANAPOLIS – Since the Olympic Games first awarded medals in the 100-meter breaststroke in 1968, no woman has twice won gold.

Lilly King has another shot to be the first . . . even if, as she says, she is no longer the invulnerable Lilly King.

The former Indiana University swimmer from Evansville made a third Olympic team in her signature event Monday night in the U.S. trials, delighting a Lucas Oil Stadium home crowd.

She won in 1:05.43, beating surprise runner-up Emma Weber, 1:06.10.

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Lydia Jacoby, who beat King in winning gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, was third in 1:06.37 – and out. Top two qualify for the Paris Olympics.

It is an unforgiving sport, as King herself has discovered. She said her confidence “took a major, major hit” in 2021.

She has not won global gold in the 100 breaststroke since the 2019 World Championships. After she was bronze medalist in 2021, she placed fourth at the 2022 and 2023 worlds.

“I would say going into 2021, I pretty much felt invincible,” King said. “Going into 2016, I felt pretty much invincible. That was not necessarily the case tonight. I think it’s also just learning how to race with the heat a little bit.

“Tonight I could have taken it out a lot faster, but I’ve had so many 100 breaststrokes that have gone wrong the last 15 meters, I didn’t want to do that tonight. I think just learning from those experiences, a lot of bad races over the last three years, kind of helped me get that win tonight, even though the time might not have been super fast.”

What is super? Her consistency and longevity.

King became the second American to make three Olympic teams in the 100 breaststroke. The other is Amanda Beard, who swam breaststroke at four Olympics (1996-2000-2004-2008). And she is 19-of-19 in making the U.S. team for a major international meet (Olympics, worlds, Pan Pacific), dating to 2016.

King, Ryan Murphy and Katie Ledecky are three of nine swimmers to win the same event at three Olympic Trials. The others are Eleanor Holm, Mary T. Meagher, Janet Evans, Gary Hall Jr., Brendan Hansen and Michael Phelps.

At a news conference Friday, the 27-year-old King announced she would not stick around for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

After her victory, she made one fan’s night by walking over to the stands to hand over her first-place medal. After all, the swimmer has enough such medals for her own museum.

“It’s a crazy meet, obviously, and I think I had just a really special moment tonight,” she said. “I think I basked in it a little more than I have in the past, just being here in Indy and also with it being my last trials.”

It was a special night for coach Ray Looze’s IU swim program.

Also qualifying for Paris relays out of the 200 freestyle finals were Blake Pieroni, sixth, and Anna Peplowski, fifth. Previously making the team was IU's Mariah Denigan in open water.

IU went without a U.S. Olympic swimmer from 1976 until 2016, when King, Pieroni and Cody Miller all made the team for Rio de Janeiro.

King will try to make the team in the 200 breaststroke, in which heats and semifinals are Wednesday and the final Thursday night.

Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA Swimming Olympic Trials: Lilly King wins 100 breaststroke