Texas Longhorns commit Lydia Jacoby wins Gold in 100 breaststroke

A nice break from all of the news surrounding the Texas Longhorns making the move from the Big 12 to the SEC for a short bit of time to focus on the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. And this bit of news involves a commit of the Texas swimming program, which is something that made waves on the night of July 26. On July 26, the Alaska native and 17-year-old Longhorns commit Lydia Jacoby wrote her name into Olympic history by winning the Gold Medal in the 100-meter women’s breaststroke final.

Jacoby was in competition with the reigning Gold Medalist and the dominant Lilly King, who was trying to defend her spot on the podium in the 100-meter breaststroke.

It was roughly five years since King was not on top of the world for the 100-meter women’s breaststroke competition. But Jacoby seemingly came out of nowhere to dethrone King and win the Gold Medal.

Texas Longhorns’ swimming commit Lydia Jacoby steals the show in the Olympics by winning Gold

Granted, King still had a good run in this event as she finished up with the Bronze Medal in a loaded field in the 100-meter breaststroke.

Jacoby finished up this event with a solid time of 1:04.95. That was barely shy of getting the Olympic record over the South African Tatjana Schoenmaker, who owns the current top time of 1:04.82. Schoenmaker very recently set that Olympic record time, on July 25.

And the world record belongs to King, with a time of 1:04.13 back in 2017.

Schoenmaker wound up getting the Silver Medal in this event, finishing up with a time of 1:05.22. And King had a time of 1:05.54 in a very close finish behind Jacoby.

Moreover, Jacoby is about to join a Longhorns swimming and diving program that is one of the best in the entire country. Texas men’s swimming and diving won a National Championship this year and the women’s program finished up third in the country.

This is the first Longhorns commit of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo to win a Gold Medal. And Jacoby did it on such a big stage, a little more than six months after she committed to the women’s swimming and diving program.