Ryan Murphy won his seventh Olympic medal as claimed bronze in the men’s 100m backstroke in Paris on Tuesday night.
It was the 29-year-old’s third medal in the 100m backstroke: he won gold in Rio and bronze in Tokyo. He also has two golds in the 4x100m medley (Rio and Tokyo) and one in the 200m backstroke (Rio). He won silver in the 200m backstroke in Rio.
“I feel good about it,” Murphy said afterward. “That’s a really talented field. What I’ve improved on over the years is being able to frame things really quickly. Hitting the wall you’re hoping to win, and that was my initial emotion.
“Thomas [Ceccon] and Xu [Jiayu], they’re both really talented guys, they’ve been really good at this sport for a long time. They deal well with pressure. Being third behind them, I’m not disappointed.”
America’s other big medal hope on Tuesday night, Lilly King, finished in a tie for fourth in the women’s 100m breaststroke, an event she won at the 2016 Olympics. There were more medals for the US in the women’s 400m medley though. Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant won silver and bronze respectively behind the Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh.
For Weyant, it was a comeback of sorts on the biggest stage. She was disqualified in at the US national championships last summer for doing a dolphin kick during the breaststroke leg.
“This is kind of like a redemption year, that’s been my mindset the whole year,” Weyant said. “Getting that out of my head definitely was not at the forefront but definitely putting in the work to get back to where I need to be.”
Luke Hobson added another medal for the US in the men’s 200m freestyle behind gold medalist David Popovici of Romania and Great Britain’s Luke Hobson, who took silver.
“I feel great. I couldn’t be happier,” Hobson said. “It was a really close race and I gave it everything I had in the last 50 meters.”
