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USATSI

A day after she was denied a chance to medal at the 2019 FINA World Championships following a controversial disqualification, 2020 Olympic hopeful Lilly King has admitted to the foul that led to her DQ.

King had been prevented from competing in the 200-meter final after the disqualification in a preliminary heat at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

King appeared to finish first in the heat with a time of 2:24.56 but looked up in shock to see "DSQ" next to her name.

According to the International Swimming Federation (FINA), King was disqualified for a non-simultaneous touch on the first turn, but the swimmer said she was not told at first why she was DQ'd. 

USA Swimming was not happy with the disqualification, choosing to appeal the call in a formal protest, but that was denied by FINA's appeals process. King has since backed her own DQ.

"They made the right call," she said late Thursday. "When you saw it in super-slo-mo and super zoom, I definitely did it."

Here's a closer look at the controversial call:

King had already won the 100-meter race on Tuesday, beating Russian rival Yulia Efimova. The American swimmer was looking for a sweep of the breaststroke titles but will now miss out on the chance for double gold in the individual events. 

After the news of her disqualification King was seen smiling in the stands while watching the 200-meter event, seemingly unbothered, or at least appearing to act so:

This has been a controversial week in swimming at the world championships, with FINA sending a warning to Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and others for arguing and protesting. Swimmers, including King, have long been critical of how FINA has handled Sun's doping accusations. After Mack Horton would not share the podium with Sun, King said, "FINA has currently done more to reprimand Australian Mack Horton than they have done to reprimand Sun Yang."