Lydia Jacoby 'Pulled Through' Relay 'as Best as I Could' After Goggles Fell Off Diving Into Pool

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Lydia Jacoby

Lydia Jacoby was swimming blind on Saturday during the mixed 4x100m medley relay.

The 17-year-old Alaskan athlete was forced to swim with her goggles in her mouth after they fell from her eyes when she dove into the pool in Tokyo during the Summer Games.

Jacoby, who was swimming the breaststroke leg of the men's and women's race, told reporters afterward, "Yeah, I don't know I've never really had that happen before. So, it was just out my control at that point once I was in the water so I just swam the best I could."

Noting that she was "definitely panicking a little," Jacoby noted that she was still able to breathe despite the positioning of her goggles.

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Still, "I think my turn was where it was the most rough because I couldn't see the wall but other than that I feel like I pulled through as best as I could," she added to reporters.

Her relay-mate Ryan Murphy praised Jacoby's performance despite the added challenge, saying that he was "really proud of how she handled those circumstances."

"I mean, anyone that's swam with their goggles in their mouth, like she did, she did fantastic and the rest of the relay did really nice as well," Murphy, 26, said.

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Team USA came in fifth place in the relay, a full three seconds behind the gold medal-winning team, Great Britain. China took the silver and Australia the bronze medal.

Caeleb Dressel, who was also part of the mixed medley, said that while he finds relays "fun," he didn't think the group "executed [the race] as well as we should of."

"The standard for the U.S. is gold and fifth place certainly doesn't cut it," he told reporters. "I didn't do my job, I wasn't happy with my split."

Jacoby's pink goggles are actually the same pair she wore as a child, she revealed earlier in the Games.

Former Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy — who won a bronze and gold medal at the London Games in 2012 — tweeted about Jacoby's pink goggles, which she gifted to the young swimmer years ago.

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Earlier this week, Jacoby won gold in her first Olympic Games, defeating teammate and record-holder Lilly King, who took bronze. The silver medal went to Tatjana Schoenmaker, of South Africa.

To learn more about Team USA, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.