2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Schedule & Results
En route to claiming the bronze medal in tonight’s 200m backstroke final at the 2015 Olympic Games, Russian teenager Evgeny Rylov lowered his own European Record and Russian National Record in the event.
1:53.97 was the mark the 19-year-old threw down in the Olympic Aquatics Center pool tonight to finish 3rd behind USA’s Ryan Murphy (1:53.62) and Australia’s Mitch Larkin (1:53.96) who scored gold and silver, respectively.
Rylov’s time tonight marks the first outing in which he’s ever dipped into sub-1:54 territory, as his old European and Russian Records sat at the 1:54.21 he registered just this past April while competing at the Russian Olympic Trials.
Split comparisons between Rylov’s swims are below:
Old European/Russian Record: 55.17/59.04 = 1:54.21
New European/Russian Record: 55.85/58.12 = 1:53.97
Rylov has been on an absolute tear in this 200m backstroke event over the past 8+ months, knocking his personal best time down over two-and-a-half seconds. Rylov’s bronze medal finish tonight, paired with the fact the Russian star is just 19 years of age, ensures he’ll be in the medal mix in this event for some time to come.