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After finishing his triple at the short-course worlds in Melbourne, American Ryan Murphy became the first individual to win all three backstroke events at a single global swimming championship event.
Murphy, a six-time medallist at the Olympics, has formally begun his search for a third Olympic spot, with Paris 2024 as the aim. The Cal-Berkeley graduate won three gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 and three medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
"We're looking at the end of July 2024, the 2024 Games, and we're working backwards from that."
In an interview with Jacksonville.com, when Murphy was asked about the break he took from swimming, and how long it would take to be Olympic-ready, he said,
"It's like, OK, what do we need to see three months out of the Games? What sort of training do we need to do six months out? We're working on that right now, working on the general, 30,000-foot-view plan. That's honestly what gets me fired up."
Road to 2024 Paris Olympics
Ryan Murphy's next and third Olympics will start on July 26, 2024. The 27-year-old Olympic champion from 2016 is still exhilarated after winning the 200-meter backstroke world title this summer. Talking about his preparation, he said,
"The biggest fear I always have is going into a meet feeling underprepared... So I am doing everything I can throughout the season to feel as prepared as possible."
His next swimming objective is to make the 2024 Olympic team and become the first American swimmer to win three Olympic gold medals. Aaron Peirsol, who competed in the backstroke event in 2000, 2004, and 2008, was the last American man to do so.
As the 200-meter world champion and the Italian Thomas Ceccon's second-place finisher in the 100-meter race, Murphy is considered one of the favorites for the next Olympics, which will start three weeks after his 29th birthday. The future of Russian competitors Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov is still uncertain. They were both barred from the most recent world championships due to sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
He hopes to motivate the upcoming generation of swimmers while preparing for a new chapter in his life with his impending marriage next year.
Ryan Murphy's performance at the Tokyo Olympics
Along with Caeleb Dressel, Simone Manuel, and Allison Schmitt, Ryan Murphy was chosen as one of the four captains for the US Olympic swim team for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
In the 100-meter backstroke individual event, Murphy swam a time of 52.19 seconds to win the bronze medal.
Murphy went on to earn a silver medal in the 200-meter backstroke with a timing of 1:54.15, swimming more than one second faster than the semifinals.
Finally, Ryan Murphy competed in the backstroke leg of the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay final alongside Michael Andrew (breaststroke), Caeleb Dressel (butterfly), and Zach Apple (freestyle). The relay team took home the gold in 3:26.7, a timing that broke the Olympic record and set a world record.
Apart from swimming
Ryan Murphy's future extends beyond Paris. He proposed to Bridget Konttinen, whom he met at Cal, in May and made the news public. He announced that their wedding is scheduled for September 2023.
