U.S. Five-Time Olympic Medalist Lilly King’s Boyfriend Proposes As She Qualifies For Team USA

On Thursday, five-time Olympic swimmer Lilly King‘s boyfriend, James Wells, popped the question to her after she qualified for the 200-meter breaststroke events at the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

“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. “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 answered while hugging Wells.

She placed a strong second in Thursday’s 200-meter breaststroke event after Kate Douglass. She had already landed a spot on Team USA for the 100-meter breaststroke. 

In 2016, King was frustrated at the Olympics when she was edged out by a Russian swimmer who she felt should have been banned due to doping concerns with the Russian team.

King will be the first U.S. swimmer to compete in 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events at three consecutive Olympics.

In an interview afterward, King said she was completely surprised by the proposal.

“I was really confused,” she said, explaining 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 there.”

Wells 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 [Indiana University] 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.”