Ryan Murphy came to the Paris Olympics hoping to reclaim his backstroke crowns. He'll have to settle for a single bronze medal.
The 29-year-old Floridian was surprisingly eliminated in the semifinals of the 200-meter backstroke on Wednesday night. His time of 1 minutes, 56.62 seconds was only 10th-fastest out of 16 swimmers, leaving him a tenth of a second away from the top-eight finish he needed to advance to the final on Thursday.
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“I really don’t have a great frame on it,” Murphy said, still trying to figure out what happened. “Obviously, I'm very disappointed. It's my fault. I just didn’t gauge it well enough.”
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Murphy swept the backstroke events at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, carrying on the proud American history in those events. He settled for silver and bronze in Tokyo, giving him extra motivation coming into these Games to get back on top.
But he could manage only a bronze in the 100 back, and he won't win anything at all in the 200.
Despite the finish, it was still a memorable Olympics for Murphy, who captured his seventh medal at the Games.
Murphy, a Jacksonville native, also became the first man to medal in three consecutive Olympic games in the men’s 100-meter backstroke since 1972.
But perhaps the biggest news for Murphy happened just outside the pool, just after he won the bronze.
Murphy looked up in the stands and saw his wife, Bridget Konttinen, holding a sign announcing their first child, due in January, would be a girl.
“I was walking back around and Bridget was holding up a sign and it said — ‘Ryan, it’s a girl,’" he said. “That was the first time I heard the gender.”
“We both — we honestly both thought it was going to be a boy,” he said. “And everyone — like everyone — we were talking to, they thought it was going to be a boy.”
As soon a Murphy started talking about the gender news, none of the questions returned to his race. It was all about the baby.
“I think that just kind of like lit me up.” he said. “And really brought this night to a whole other level.”
A big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Murphy pointed out that quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his wife also have a daughter on the way.
“I hope our daughters can be friends,” he said.
