Alaska swimmer Lydia Jacoby ends 2024 Olympics hopes after withdrawal from her final Trials event

Alaska’s Lydia Jacoby has announced she will withdraw from the 200-meter breaststroke set to be contested this week at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Indianapolis.

Finishing in the top two was her final avenue to make a return trip to the Olympics.

In an Instagram message posted Tuesday morning, Jacoby wrote: “I have made the decision to scratch from the 200 breaststroke later this week in order to process and rejuvenate.”

The 2020 Olympic champion added: “I wish the best of luck to my incredible teammates in Paris and will be cheering loudly from home ♥️ go USA!!!”

Jacoby, 20, finished third in Monday’s 100-meter breaststroke, just short of earning a spot on Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Jacoby, who at age 17 won the 100 breaststroke at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, needed to finish in the top two to guarantee a return trip to the Games.

Jacoby, who swims for the Seward Tsunami Swim Club, prefaced her decision to scratch in the 200 with a pledge, writing: “I am not defined by my results. I am more than an athlete. I will be back. And I will be better.”

Jacoby had the third-fastest seed time in the 200 entering the Trials, behind Lilly King and Kate Douglass. King and Douglass are strong favorites to earn Olympic berths in the competition, with seed times more than three seconds faster than Jacoby and the rest of the field. Preliminary races for the 200 breaststroke are scheduled for Wednesday, with the finals set to run Thursday.