Olympic record holder, Ryan Murphy battled it out with Greek swimmer Apostolos Christou in their 100m backstroke heat.
UPDATE: Ryan Murphy has finished his first pivotal medal race in the 2024 Olympics. See the results here.
Ryan Murphy could do something no other male swimmer has ever done in Olympic history, but he'll need a big swim on Monday to do it.
Murphy is trying to become the first male swimmer to win medals in three consecutive Olympics in both the 100m backstroke and the 200m backstroke.
In order to do it, he'll need a big win in the backstroke final Monday.
Murphy’s quest begins 2:19 p.m. CT, with coverage airing live on NBC 5.
| Men's 100m Backstroke 🏅 | 2:19 p.m. | NBCOlympics.com, Peacock |
Murphy, racing in the first of two semifinal races Sunday, finished in fourth in his heat with a time of 52.72 seconds. The top-three finishers in each semifinal automatically qualified for the final, with the remaining two fastest times also getting into the eight-man field.
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Fortunately for Murphy, his time stood up well against those competing in the second semifinal, and he ended up with the fifth-best time, qualifying for Monday’s final in the event.
China’s Jiayu Xu flirted with a world record in the 100m backstroke before finishing with a time of 52.02 seconds, half a second faster than Italy’s Thomas Ceccon.
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He’ll start his road toward getting into the 200m backstroke final with his preliminary heat race on Wednesday, with the starting gun scheduled to be fired at 4:33 a.m. CT.
