Cal Swimming: Ryan Murphy Wins 200 Back at the FINA World Championships

Former Cal star Ryan Murphy, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, won the 200-meter backstroke Thursday at the FINA World Championships at Budapest, Hungary, his first win in the event at either the Olympics or Worlds since 2016.

The 26-year-old clocked 1 minutes, 54.52 seconds to easily beat runner-up Luke Greenback (1:55.16) of Great Britain. American Shine Casas was third (1:55.35).

Murphy won the 200 back at the Rio Olympics in 2016, when he totaled three gold medals. Since then, he was second at the 2017 Worlds, at the 2019 Worlds and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

"For someone like me, I have one focus meet a year – it’s this one, so one week out of 52 is what I’m focusing on for the rest of the year,” Murphy said, according to Swimming World magazine.

“There’s a ton of work that goes into this – not just on my end but my coaches, my teammates – so to come in, win a medal for myself and for the people who helped me and my country is really special.”

Absent from this meet is Tokyo gold medalist Evgeny Rylov, the Russian swimmer accused of doping by Murphy last year. Rylov and the Russian team are banned from competing at the Worlds this year.

Rylov also lost his endorsement deal with swimwear manufacturer Speedo after attending a rally in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I think sport has the power to bring people together – something like the Olympics last summer we were able to come together regardless of the fact that covid was going on,” Murphy said.

“At the same time you can’t ignore what’s going on in Ukraine, you can’t ignore the impact that is having on some swimmers who are competing here.”

Murphy, whose Cal career ended in 2017, swam faster in this meet than he did at the USA team trials in April but a hair slower than the 1:54.15 clocking he turned in a year ago at Tokyo.

He also earned a gold medal this week in the 4x100 medley relay and was second in the 100 back.

Meanwhile, Cal fifth-year senior Trenton Julian helped the U.S. to a gold medal in the 4x200 freestyle relay in 7:00.24. The 13-time All-American and six-time Pac-12 champion swam the third leg in 1:45.31 to help the U.S. team win by more than three seconds.

Another former Cal swimmer, Egypt’s Farida Osman, qualified for the finals in the 50 butterly for the fifth straight World Championships. She earned bronze medals at both Gwangju 2019 and Budapest 2017 after finishing fifth in 2015 and seventh in 2013.

Osman, the only woman from an African nation to have qualified for an individual final at this meet, was seventh in the 100 fly, setting national and African continental records.

She qualified fifth in the 50 fly with a mark of 25.54, just off her Egyptian and African record of 25.39. The 50 fly final is on Friday.

Cover photo of Ryan Murphy by Robert Hanashiro, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

Add us as a preferred source on Google