Cal Sports Report

Ryan Murphy Helps Set World Record in Gold-Medal Relay Swim

Former Cal star Murphy swims a leg of U.S. win in mixed medley relay at the Olympics. Weitzeil also gets a gold medal in that event

Jake Curtis

Ryan Murphy
Ryan Murphy / Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports
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Former Cal swimmer Ryan Murphy finally got a gold medal in the 2024 Olympics and he helped set a world record in the process as he swam the leadoff backstroke leg for the United States, which won the mixed 4x100 medley relay final by a fraction of a second over China on Saturday.

Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske finished in a time of 3:37.43, breaking the mark of 3:37.58 set by Great Britain when it won the gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, which were held in 2021.

It is the fifth Olympic gold medal for the 29-year-old Murphy, with two of those coming in relay races in the previous two Olympics.  He finished third to earn a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke earlier in these Olympics but failed to qualify for the final in the 200 backstroke.

Murphy’s now has seven Olympic medals – five gold (2016 medley relay, 2020 medley relay, 2024 mixed medley relay, 2016 100 backstroke, 2016 200 backstroke), one silver (2020 200 backstroke) and two bronze (2020 100 backstroke, 2024 100 backstroke)

Cal graduate Abbey Weitzell did not participate in the mixed 4x100 medley relay final, but she swam a leg in the qualifying heat on Friday, so she will earn a gold medal as well. She got a silver medal for swimming a heat in the women’s 4x100 freestyle relay even though she did swim in the final of that event either.

However, the suspense came in Saturday’s final, and Murphy gave the U.S. foursome a short lead with a time of 52.08 seconds, just 0.05 of a second ahead of China. Fink swam the second breaststroke leg for the U.S. and Walsh swam the butterfly leg.  The U.S. held a lead of four-one-hundredths of second when Huske began the anchor freestyle leg. 

Huske held on for a total time of 3:37.43, just 0.12 of a second ahead of China.  Australia finished third for the bronze, a little more than a second behind China.

Hunter Armstrong and Jack Alexy, USA: Armstrong swam the opening backstroke leg and Alexy swam the anchor freestyle leg in a heat of the men’s 4x100 medley relay. The Americans placed first in their heat in a time 3:31.62, which was the second-fastest time overall. That enabled the U.S. to easily advance to Saturday’s final of that event. Alexy recently completed his junior year at Cal, while Armstrong was member of the postgraduate training program at Cal. Alexy won a gold medal earlier in these Olympics as a member of the USA 4x100 freestyle relay.

Hugo Gonzalez, Spain: Gonzalez swam the opening leg for Spain in the 4x100 medley relay heat, but the Spanish team was disqualified and did not advance to the finals. Gonzalez was a 2022 graduate of Cal and swam for Cal in 2023 as well. He had placed sixth in both the 100 and 200 backstroke events earlier in these Olympics.

Alex Shackell, USA: Shackell, who spent her freshman year at Cal before transferring to Texas, swam the butterfly leg on the women’s 4x100 medley relay team that placed second in its heat and had the fourth-fastest time overall to advance to the final of that event.

Mary-Ambre Moluh, France: Molou swam the anchor freestyle leg for the French team that finished third in its heat of the women’s 4x100 medley relay and had the seventh-fastest time overall. That allowed France to advance to the final.

Stephanie Au, Hong Kong: Au swam a leg on the women’s 4x100 medley relay heat for Hong Kong, which finished seventh in its heat and 13th overall. Hong Kong did not advance to the final. The 32-year-old Au is a 2014 graduate of Cal competing in her fifth Olympics.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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