NANTERRE, France (AP) — Ryan Murphy came to the Paris Olympics hoping to reclaim his backstroke crowns. He’ll have to settle for a single bronze medal.
The 29-year-old Floridian was surprisingly eliminated in the semifinals of the 200-meter backstroke on Wednesday night. His time of 1 minutes, 56.62 seconds was only 10th-fastest out of 16 swimmers, leaving him a tenth of a second away from the top-eight finish he needed to advance to the final on Thursday.
“I really don’t have a great frame on it,” Murphy said, still trying to figure out what happened. “Obviously, I’m very disappointed. It’s my fault. I just didn’t gauge it well enough.”
Murphy swept the backstroke events at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, carrying on the proud American history in those events. He settled for silver and bronze in Tokyo, giving him extra motivation coming into these Games to get back on top.
But he could manage only a bronze in the 100 back, and he won’t win anything at all in the 200.
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