Initially, it appeared that swimmer Lilly King had won her heat in the preliminaries of the women’s 200-meter breaststroke at the world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
But instead, the American star looked up at the video board to see she had been disqualified. Still in the pool, King began to look around, seemingly in disbelief, unsure of why she wasn’t advancing to the semifinals.
According to video review, King failed to touch the wall with both hands at the same time in the first turn.
Her team filed a formal protest, which was denied by FINA’s appeals process. The matter then escalated to a jury of appeal at King’s request, which she also lost.
King, an outspoken doping critic, perhaps is best known for her rivalry in the pool with Russian Yulia Efimova, famously calling out the Russian during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Earlier this week, King defended her title in the 100-meter breaststroke, winning gold in a time of 1 minute, 4.93 seconds. Efimova took silver.
