Cal Sports Report

Ryan Murphy Advances to 100 Backstroke Finals -- But Barely

Cal swimmers at Olympics: Murphy had nervous moments after disappointing semifinal race. Hugo Gonzalez also qualifies for 100 backstroke finals

Jake Curtis

Ryan Murphy
Ryan Murphy / Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports
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Cal alumni Ryan Murphy kept alive his hopes of winning an Olympic gold-medal in the 100-meter backstroke, but he barely made it and had some anxious moments before he knew he would participate in Monday’s finals.

Murphy finished fourth in the first of two semifinals in the 100 backstroke on Sunday in Paris, and his time of 52.72 seconds did not seem like it would be good enough to advance.  TV commentator Rowdy Gaines said after that race that he thought Murphy was “on the outside looking in.”

The second semifinal featured Hunter Armstong, a member of Cal’s postgraduate training group who figured to benefit from Murphy’s disappointing race.  But the second semifinal race was relatively slow and Armstrong only finished fifth in his race in a time of 53.11.  Armstrong did not qualify for the finals, but Murphy did as his time turned out to be the fifth-fastest of all semifinalists.

The biggest beneficiary of the slow second semifinal was former Cal standout Hugo Gonzalez, who represents Spain in the 100 backstroke.  He was fifth in the first semifinal race, but his time of 52.95 was good enough for the eighth and final spot in the finals. His time was just two-one-hundredths of a second better than Evangelos Makrygiannis of Greece, who had the ninth-best time but will be a reserve for the finals.

But the big news was that Murphy had qualified for the finals.  The 29-year-old Murphy, who won the 100 and 200 backstroke in the recent U.S. Olympic swimming trials, captured a gold medal in both the 100 and 200 backstroke at the 2016 Olympics.  He then won a silver medal in the 200 backstroke and a bronze medal in the 100 backstroke in the 2020 Olympics (which held in 2021).

Murphy is attempting to become the first male swimmer to win medals in three consecutive Olympics in both the 100 and 200 meter backstroke. He will compete in the 200 back later in these Olympics.

Lucas Henveaux, Belgium: Henveaux reached the finals of the 200-meter freestyle, but he finished fourth in his semifinal heat and wound up with the 11th-fastest time overall. As a result, he did not qualify for the finals.. Henveaux was a Cal graduate student in 2023.

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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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