Paris Olympics, Day 5: Hubert Kos Top Seed in 200 Back; Ryan Murphy Eliminated
The men’s 200 backstroke has become an unpredictable race these days. Ryan Murphy found himself on the wrong side of that dynamic Wednesday night.
The 2016 Olympic champion in this event won’t get a chance to swim for another medal, finishing 10th in the semifinals at the Paris La Defense Arena. Hubert Kos, the 2023 world champion, set the top time in 1:55.96. Murphy was one of 10 swimmers in the 1:56s, his 1:56.62 landing 10th overall. It ends his bid to become the first man to medal in both backstroke events at three straight Olympics after a bronze medal in the 100 earlier.
“I don’t really have a great frame on it at the moment. Obviously, I’m very disappointed. It’s my fault,” Murphy said. “I just didn’t gauge the heat well enough.”
- World record: Aaron Peirsol, U.S., 1:51.92 (2009)
- Olympic record: Evgeny Rylov, Russia, 1:53.27 (2021)
- Tokyo Olympic winner: Evgeny Rylov, ROC, 1:53.27
Kos was long and strong to win the first heat of two in prelims with a time of 1:55.96. A knot of swimmers in the 1:56s made things interesting, with Heat 2 winner Roman Mityukov leading the way in 1:56.05, just .04 up on Pieter Coetze.
Prelims held one obvious surprise after with the disqualification of Luke Greenbank, the bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics. It brought a surprise before with the withdrawal of China’s Xu Jiayu, though at 28, the veteran wasn’t exactly a medal threat.
Greenbank’s disqualification means that semifinals – not finals, but merely semifinals – contains just two members of the 2021 Olympic final, in Murphy and Adam Telegdy. Only five are holdovers from last year’s World Championships final, a group that includes Mityukov (the bronze medalist there and silver medalist at 2024 Worlds) and Hugo Gonzalez of Spain, the Doha World Champion.
Murphy was chasing his eighth Olympic medal. He won this event in Rio in 2016 before finishing runner-up to Evgeny Rylov in Tokyo. Rylov is absent due to Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Lukas Martens, who is in the middle of a tremendous meet that has included gold in the 400 free and the final of the 200 free and 800 free with Germany, was second in the first heat and fourth overall in 1:56.33.
The other American, Keaton Jones, got into finals in 1:56.33. He’s sixth, just behind Greece’s Apostolos Christou. France’s Mewen Tomac attacked the race from an outside lane in Heat 2 to go 1:56.43 and get in, with Gonzalez eighth.
That left out Thomas Ceccon, the 100 backstroke champ, despite him going 1:56.59. That’s a tenth off his best and two tenths off the Italian record. Telegdy was also ousted, in 13th.
