 Agencies
INDIANAPOLIS, July 13: Ryan Murphy longs to reclaim the top spot on the medal podium at the Paris Olympics.
America's backstroke star was relegated to silver and bronze in his individual races at Tokyo - a performance that still irks him just a bit.
"There's definitely no shortage of motivation from my end," said Murphy, who will be competing in the men's 100 and 200-meter back for the third Olympics in row. "I feel like I've always got a fire under my butt." The 29-year-old Floridian, who trains at Cal-Berkeley, has been a worthy successor to the long run of backstroke success in the U.S.
Picking up the baton from giants such as John Nabor, Rick Carey, Lenny Krayzelburg, Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers, Murphy has left his own impressive mark.
At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, he swept the men's backstroke events and added a third gold as part of the 4x100 medley relay.
He followed up at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games with a runner-up finish in the 200 and a third-place showing in the 100, to go along with another gold in the medley relay.
Murphy motivated to train harderTo win any medal at the Olympics is quite an achievement, but it wasn't good enough for the demanding Murphy.
Especially since the victories by Russia's Evgeny Rylov in both backstroke events ended an impressive American streak. The U.S. Men had swept every 100 and 200 back going all the way back to the 1996 Atlanta Games - a total of 12 gold medals in a row.
"The world is getting faster," said Grevers, who came out of retirement to compete just for fun at this year's Olympic trials. "We won golds for a very long time, but the world has kind of caught up to the U.S."
For Murphy, that pushes him to go ever harder.
"I want to win every time I touch the water, whether that's a Monday morning practice or an Olympic finals," he said.
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