KING Lilly

General
GENDER EQUALITY
She has spoken of her belief that female athletes' public personas are perceived differently to those of male athletes. "I joke that I act like a guy, speaking my mind on something, calling out something I don't like, being intimidating on the [starting] blocks. It's been a challenge acting like I normally do but being criticised for that. You're seen as being cocky or arrogant, while a guy doing that is seen as being a leader. I'm the first to say I am cocky, but I can back it up. It's because of what I've done in the pool. I knew I was taking a difficult path by being myself. Swimmers are typically more on the quiet side. They don't feel the need to upset anyone. They want us to be nice and be humble, and in reality the great athletes aren't always like that all the time. We're fierce and competitive and we're angry when we do poorly. To hide that is a disservice to women in sports." (latimes.com, 10 Mar 2020; olympics.com, 06 Oct 2020, 27 Jun 2020)

MOTIVATION
In 2020 she said that her main motivation in the sport had become avoiding defeat. "It's definitely hard to stay motivated at times because I'll come to practice and I'm like, 'I did this already'. You set a world record [and] win the Olympics. Like, what's next? At this point, nothing is new for me. I've done it. Which is great. I'm very happy that I've done it. But it's hard to stay motivated. It's like, 'OK, I just have to repeat everything that I've done'. But honestly, it all comes down to the fact that I really just hate to lose. I am genuinely embarrassed when I lose. So, that's honestly what probably pushes me most." (olympics.com, 06 Oct 2020)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She has trained to become a physical education teacher. (digitaljournal.com, 09 Sep 2019)