Ryan Murphy is a meters swimmer. Those are his words. At Atlanta Pro Swim, after dropping a 1:55 200m backstroke, he said 2017 NCAA Championships shook his confidence a bit. Ryan explained he didn’t ease up after his 2016 Olympic backstroke sweep, but he focused so much on meters training he didn’t transition enough back to yards racing. While Ryan’s confidence was shaken at NCAAs, he still swam under 44 seconds in the 100 yard back and he crushed the field on the final 50 of the 200 yard back.
After Ryan’s stunning performance in Rio, it won’t be smooth sailing in Budapest. Russia’s Evgeny Rylov swam a 1:53.8 200m back in April, and China’s Jiayu Xu ripped a 51.8 100m back. What will it take for Ryan to sweep these events again at the 2017 FINA World Championships?
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Wait a second… the 100-yard free record was set by Caeleb Dressel in a 40.00, right? Then if Murphy can go sub-44 in the 100-back… dang. They’re so fast. But the correlation between Dressel’s 100 free and Murphy’s 100 back are surprising. 3.5 seconds difference between back and free?
He’s the the Top Gun of the backstroke. He’s the guy everyone will be shooting for now at the Big Meets.
I’ve only seen him on TV, but his shoulders look incredibly wide.
I hope he passed his exams – he has to compete in the classroom against students who could spend a lot more time in the library than he could.
I like that you guys included that bit on his course schedules for the semester. You get so used to hearing about these athletes in the pool that you forget they’re grinding it out in school as well.
Ryan will have to be at his best in Budapest to beat Xu in the 100 back and Rylov in the 200 back. But he’s a champion, a racer and as he says, he’s now more comfortable with long course. Great fights in perspective.
Bobo…I think Ryan’s got a serious fight ahead of him in Budapest, but I could also see Xu swimming a 52+ in the 100…. In the 200 back? Ryan’s final 50 is too dangerous. Forgetting times, he closes on the final wins.
Their are going to be some great backstroke races in Budapest. Ryan is the favorite with the olympic sweep, but Xu has proven he can swim fast at bigs meets, and Rylov is a very talented young swimmer who still has alot of room to improve even further. Budapest can’t be here soon enough.
I wish my short course yards times could fall as bad as Ryan’s
me too….
Best backstroker on planet at this moment, he’s similar to peirsol in that he can swim both 100/200 very well and has the ability to respond to any threat. Hes a lot bigger and faster underwater that peirsol aswel . I feel he’ll do whatever it takes. If that’s world record in the 100 then it will be, 200 he’s going 1.53 mid and will win again for sure.
Ryan Murphy was phenomenal in 2016 but there’s still a long way to go before matching Aaron Peirsol’s accomplishments.
As you mentioned it, Peirsol had no great underwaters and it didn’t prevent him from winning 2 olympic golds in the 100 back, 1 olympic gold and 2 olympic silvers in the 200 back, 3 world golds in the 100 back and 4 world golds and 1 world silver in the 200 back. Plus 3 other individual golds and 1 individual silver at SCM worlds. Plus 16 individual world records broken. And I don’t even talk about his charisma. The greatest male backstroker of all time in my opinion.
I’d put Roland Matthes first. He dropped the WR in the 100 back by 3 seconds and the 200 back by 7 or 8 seconds during his tenure as best backstroker. He won the 1968 gold in the 100 back by over a body length. Doping? Maybe, because he was from the DDR, but he was too scrawny to make a great case for that.
Wasn’t even suggesting he could be compared to Peirsol regards accomplishments, just he’s a similar mold, recently USA hasn’t had a 100/200 swimmer as dominant as Aaron, lochte, clary, thoman, Plummer, grevers all 100 or 200 at the elitist level.
If Murphy wins world 100/200 2017/19 and trebles again in Tokyo then yeah to me he will be at least on par maybe better depending on times to Peirsol, but so much more competitive now than early 2000’s, either way great swimmer, Peirsol will always be a legend and a great in his own right.
I recall at his peak, Aaron Peirsol went 5-6 years without losing a backstroke race, including Olympics, world champs, and national competition against folks like Krayzelburg and Phelps.
Best Backstroker in the world while being focused on yards. I think he will pull further away now that he can focus on meters. It’s good to hear that he didn’t let up training after Rio.
I have my doubts Xu can repeat that kind of performance with top talent around him. He got out to 100% clean water in that swim which won’t be there at worlds.
Ryan sort of said the same thing…that swims in April will not be the same as swims in late July…. He didn’t appear stressed about it.
Yes of course Xu may not repeat that swim, but you shouldn’t pin your hopes on that if you really want to win. The best solution is to SWIM FASTER. Come on Ryan, shoot for another world record!