Lydia Jacoby

[7] At the end of the 2020 year, Jacoby committed to swimming in college for the University of Texas at Austin starting in the fall of 2022.

[1] Jacoby sang, wrote songs, and played double bass as part of a bluegrass band named the Snow River String Band for six years performing at the Anchorage Folk Festival multiple times prior to 2021 (when she turned 17 years old).

[6] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacoby was out of the pool for two months and found other forms of staying active including skiing and running with ice cleats.

Her mother, Leslie Jacoby, helped with commuting to the pool and renting an apartment to make swim practices.

[4][7] That same year, she won titles in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley at the Alaska High School State Championships.

[9] Her time of 2:09.31 in the 200-yard individual medley won her the state title in that event for girl's high school swimming.

[16] One month later, she competed in five individual events at the 2019 Northwest Speedo Sectionals swim meet held at King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington, including swimming a 1:00.42 in the 100-yard breaststroke to place second and finish less than three-tenths of a second behind first-place finisher Kaitlyn Dobler.

[22][24] Based on her time of 1:07.57 in the 100-meter breaststroke, she ranked as the third-fastest junior American female performer in the event for the year and was named to the 2021 roster for the U.S.

[42][43] Following warm-ups and before the first event of finals in the evening of the same day, Heaphy and Jacoby were featured in video form providing supportive messages to the swimmers of the 2021 Alaska Junior Olympics Championships.

[44][45] On June 10, 2021, Jacoby was called a "Dark Horse Threat" to the women's 200-meter breaststroke event for the upcoming US Olympic Trials by SwimSwam in part due her 15th place seed time and in part due to her stroke's similarity to the stroke of Leisel Jones.

[51][52] Her swim moved her up in the global rankings to fourth-fastest swimmer so far in 2021 for the event and broke the national age group record of 1:05.75 for the long course 100-meter breaststroke in the girls 17–18 age group set by Kasey Carlson at the 2009 World Championships in Rome to win the bronze medal.

[55] Press coverage followed Jacoby's semi-final win and both local and national news outlets mentioned her potential of making the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

[59] With this swim, 17-year-old Jacoby qualified for her first US Olympic Team in the 100-meter breaststroke, and lowered her national age group record from the day before.

[69][70] Overall she ranked second in the prelims, behind South African Tatjana Schoenmaker who swam a 1:04.82 and ahead of American teammate Lilly King who finished with a time of 1:05.55.

[86] Returning to Seward, Alaska following the Olympic Games, Jacoby was welcomed home on August 5 with a parade and took a few weeks off from swimming to rest.

[97] The second day in Budapest, Jacoby swam a 1:05.40 in the 100-meter breaststroke final, capturing the silver medal in the event behind Nika Godun of Russia.

[104] She was one of four swimmers who represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics to receive three Golden Goggle Award nominations, with the other three being Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, and Bobby Finke.

[106] Her gold-medal-winning performance in the 100-meter breaststroke earned her the nomination for the "Female Race of the Year" for triumphing as a 17-year-old in a field of competitors composed of primarily of well-established senior swimmers including the current world record-holder and 2016 Olympic Games gold medalist in the event.

[104] In addition to the reasons for her nominations for the two other awards, Jacoby was nominated for "Female Athlete of Year" for her silver-medal-win in the women's medley relay as well as contributing to making history for humankind by racing in the first-ever event at the Olympic Games in the sport of swimming in which men and women competed together, the mixed 100-meter medley relay, and overcoming the in-race adversity of swimming without goggles to split one of her fastest times swimming 100-meters of breaststroke.

[109] Jacoby edged out 2020 Olympian Jillian Crooks for the award, a swimmer from the Cayman Islands who moved to Alaska following the 2020 Summer Olympics to test out the American, and specifically Alaskan, competitive swimming scene.

[109][110] Following her state-title-winning performances, Arena announced via SwimSwam and Swimming World on November 19 that it had signed a professional sponsorship deal with Jacoby.

[116] In the semi-finals, she was the only swimmer from the United States to compete and ranked thirteenth with a time of 30.21 seconds, not qualifying for the final.

[118][119] The following day, December 18, she and teammate Katie Grimes withdrew from the championships in regard to procedures put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[120][121] Less than one week after turning 18 years old, Jacoby placed third in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2022 Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Illinois with a time of 1:06.87.

[129] The following month, she swam a personal best time of 2:25.98 in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2022 Mare Nostrum stop in Monaco, winning the gold medal and finishing less than half a second ahead of silver medalist in the event Sophie Hansson of Sweden.

[139] Six days after the 2022 Swimming World Cup Toronto, Jacoby placed third in the 100-yard breaststroke in a dual meet against the Virginia Cavaliers with a time of 58.96 seconds, less than nine-tenths of a second behind two junior-year (third-year) swimmers, each of whom was 21 years of age (three years older than Jacoby).

[141] On December 1, at the 2022 Minnesota Invitational, she achieved a personal best time in the 200-yard individual medley with a mark of 2:05.37, which tied her for thirty-fifth in rank overall.

[148] In her school's second-to-last dual meet for the season, against the NC State Wolfpack, she improved upon her national age group record for the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in a personal best time of 57.45 seconds to win the event.

[153] The next day, she lowered her national age group record in the 100-yard breaststroke final to a 57.29 and won her first conference title.

She finished third in the 100-meter breaststroke behind Lilly King and Emma Weber, and missed her opportunity to make it onto the Olympic team and was not able to defend her title.