Lydia Jacoby aims for 2nd Summer Games at U.S. Olympic Swim Trials this week

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - From a 25-meter pool in Seward to an NFL stadium converted to a pool teeming with Olympic hopefuls, Lydia Jacoby’s journey has come far — and is far from finished.

Jacoby was just 14 years old when she made her first U.S. Olympic Swim Trials cut. Six years, two Olympic medals and a new perspective later, the Alaskan swimmer will look to make her second Summer Games at Trials this week in Indianapolis.

“She’s committed and focused but she is also looking to have fun and settle in here in Indy,” Jacoby’s longtime swim coach Solomon D’Amico said. “She’s excited, she’s fired up, you know.”

Jacoby, now 20, will compete in the qualifying heats of the Women’s 100-meter breaststroke Sunday morning on Peacock with the finals of the event scheduled for Monday evening on NBC.

It was three years ago at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo where Jacoby more than made a splash. She stunned the swimming world by winning gold in the 100-meter breaststroke — outpacing defending champion Lilly King — before earning a silver medal as part of the 4x100 medley relay team.

”It felt like it was going to explode,” D’Amico said of the energy inside of the Olympic watch party at Seward High School when Jacoby claimed gold. “It was really special, one of the most surreal experiences of any of our lives.”

The moment created a ripple effect felt by her former team at the Tsunami Swim Club in Seward and beyond.

“I think across the state we heard there was basically a 20% to 30% increase in participation at the club level,” said D’Amico, who still coaches at the club in Seward. “You certainly can’t go a week without hearing about Lydia or I say something about her to the kids, if not daily, it is a pretty inspirational story.”

The highs of Olympic triumph can also bring lows, with Jacoby battling what she described as “some pretty severe post-Olympic depression” and attributing her turnaround to therapy.

“Sharing stories about mental health is not the easiest thing,” Jacoby told NBC last week. “It is very impressive to me when other people do that and it has really inspired me to do that same thing. It is just so incredible to see the payoff to that and so many people have come to me and said like hearing your story has inspired me to seek help and even if I inspire just one person to make a positive change in their life like that means everything to me.”

Jacoby has competed two collegiate seasons for the University of Texas since her gold medal moment, earning a National Championship in her specialty, the 100-meter breaststroke, and multiple All-American honors.

”Physically she is very fit,” D’Amico said. “Technically she is looking great with her connection with her stroke, with her pull and her kick. Her turns and walls, which that has been a known kind of weakness, they have definitely gotten sharper as well.”

Jacoby’s non-swimming life includes playing standup bass, traveling and gracing the covers of magazines.

″Really at her core, she cares about herself, she cares about people, she cares about being a good person and that is honestly probably the most important thing, the biggest takeaway about her,” D’Amico said. “The gold medal and silver medal aside, she is a good person to her core and that makes all the difference. Hopefully everybody enjoys her story and takes some inspiration from it.”

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