It's a Bronze Medal and a Baby Girl for Ryan Murphy

Former Cal swimmer Murphy finds out his child's gender after capturing his seventh Olympic medal

Ryan Murphy / Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports

Former Cal standout Ryan Murphy won a medal in the 100-backstroke for the third straight Olympics as he claimed a bronze medal in that event on Monday by finishing third in the finals on Monday in Paris.

The 29-year-old Murphy was clocked in 52.39 seconds, which was 0.39 seconds behind gold-medalist Thomas Ceccon of Italy and 0.07 seconds behind silver-medalist Xu Jiayu of China.   And Murphy just barely got onto the podium, finishing just two-one-hundredths of a second ahead of fourth-place finisher Apostolos Christou of Greece.

After the race Murphy got some other news.

“I was walking back around and [Murphy's wife] Bridget was holding up a sign and it said — ‘Ryan, it’s a girl,’” he said. “That was the first time I heard the gender.”

“We both — we honestly both thought it was going to be a boy,” he said. “And everyone — like everyone — we were talking to, they thought it was going to be a boy.”

After that revelation the media questions had nothing to do with the race, but with his child.

“I think that just kind of like lit me up.” he said. “And really brought this night to a whole other level.”

Murphy is a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he noted that Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his wife also have a daughter on the way.

“I hope our daughters can be friends,” he said.

Murphy swam the first 50 meters in 25.04 seconds, putting him second, just behind Xu.  But Ceccon, the world-record-holder in this event, passed both of them in the final 50 to get the victory.

Murphy has now won seven Olympic medals, and he is still hoping to become the first male swimmer in history to win medals in three consecutive Olympics in both the 100 and 200 meter backstroke. He will compete in the 200 backstroke later in these Olympics

Murphy had won four gold medals before coming to France. He won gold medals in both the 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter backstroke in 2016, and in the 2020 Olympics he won a silver medal in the 200 backstroke and bronze in the 100 backstroke. He was a member of the United State gold-medal-winning medley relay teams in both Olympics and will try to win gold in that event again in this Olympics.

Hugo Gonzalez, Spain: Gonzalez graduated from Cal in 2022, and he was also a finalist in the 100-meter backstroke and finished sixth.  That matched his sixth-place in the same event at the 2020 Summer Games.  

Lucas Henveaux, Belgium: Henveaux finished third in his heat of the 800-meter freestyle in in a time of 7:51.51, but that was only the 19th-fastest time overall, so he was not among the eight swimmers who advanced to the finals. Henveaux was a graduate student at Cal in 2023.

Claire Weinstein, USA: Weinstein finished eighth in the finals of the women's 200-meter freestyle. Weinstein is just 17 years old and has committed to enroll at Cal in the fall of 2025. She finished in 1:56.60. Mollie O'Callaghan of Australia won the gold medal in that event, with Aussie countrymate Ariarne Titmus finishing second.

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