Olympic Gold Medalist Lilly King Named Grand Marshal of Fall Festival Parade
The accolades continue to roll in for Evansville native, and Olympic gold medalist, Lilly King, as she has been named the Grand Marshal of this year's West Side Nut Club Fall Festival Parade.
We spoke with Festival Chairman, Rick Decker, who granted us permission to announce King's selection, Wednesday afternoon. He said the decision to offer King the role came after she successfully made the U.S. Swim Team at the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska which took place June 26th through July 3rd. Her gold medal win was just icing on the cake.
Decker revealed to us that he had received word King mentioned her desire to be Parade Marshall during an interview after the Olympic Trails. A call from Mayor Lloyd Winnecke didn't hurt either.
According to the Festival Chairman, Mayor Winnecke called him shortly after King made the team and said, "You know what you should do..." Decker replied with a chuckle, "I'm already on it."
King won Olympic gold Monday night in the 100 Meter Breaststroke, holding off Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, whom King now-famously called out during the semifinals of that event Sunday evening referring to her rivals doping scandal.
The Reitz graduate did not fare as well in the 200 Meter Breaststroke where she came up short of advancing to the final in that event, finishing 12th overall. The top eight advanced to Thursday night's final.
She'll get one more crack at adding another medal to her stash when she competes in the 400 Medley Relay beginning with Friday morning's preliminaries at 11:00 a.m. Evansville time.
The West Side Nut Club Fall Festival Parade will conclude the annual street festival on Saturday, October 8th with a start time of 4:30 p.m.