With a Family and Full-Time Job, Ryan Murphy Chasing Return to Backstroke Elite in Time for Los Angeles Olympics
Watching an NFL game taking place at SoFi Stadium, the venue set to host Olympic swimming in 2028, helped finalize the decision for Ryan Murphy to return to swimming and pursue a fourth Olympic Games.
“They were coming back from commercial break, and they were doing a 360 view. I was like, ‘That looks really cool,'” Murphy said. ‘That was kind of like, “Yeah, I want to go for this. I want to have that moment, have that feeling, feel that adrenaline.'”
Murphy had taken his first significant break from the sport after the Paris Games, where he earned one medal of each color for a total of nine Olympic honors in a Hall-of-Fame career. He helped the United States to gold and a world record in the mixed 400 medley relay, but his individual times in the backstroke events were well short of his best. He held on to win bronze in the 100 back but struggled in the 200-meter race, missing the final after winning gold or silver at every major meet for eight years.
Ryan Murphy (right) with Xu Jiayu and Thomas Ceccon after winning 100 backstroke bronze at the Paris Olympics — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
In the year after, he never officially retired but began transitioning to the next phase of life. Murphy began working full-time at growth equity firm Norwest. He and his wife, Bridget, welcomed daughter Eevi in January 2025.
“Look, I love the sport, and I’ve always loved it,” Murphy said. “Obviously, there’s times where you’re disappointed in it, and I knew I needed to get away for a while, and kind of start experiencing the life beyond the pool.”
As the summer racing season rolled around, USA Swimming picked its first major championship team without Murphy, a longtime team captain, in a decade. Without him, the men’s backstroke events turned into a significant weakness for the American team. In a year when it took under 52 seconds to reach the podium at the World Championships, the winning time at U.S. Nationals was 53.00, with none of the American representatives improving their times against global competition.
“As I watched the swims last summer, I definitely had some feelings, like, ‘Dang, I wish I was in there,'” Murphy said. “Even when I was on break from swimming, most weeks I was touching the water once or twice a week because I like that as a workout. It’s always nice to get into the pool, but what I really enjoy is the competition aspect. I was watching that, and it’s like, ‘I wish I was racing those guys. It’s always fun to get in there and mix it up with the best our country has to offer.”
Swimming Plus a Career
A full comeback would require blending two full-time careers, the one he had pursued for his first seven years after college and his new job. During his year away, Murphy had commuted to an office in Menlo Park, Calif., four days per week, an hour drive each way from his longtime training base in Berkeley.
When he resumed training with the Cal team and head coach Dave Durden, Murphy cut back to one day in the office per week, on Mondays, and four days working remotely. He typically does not swim Mondays, instead training once per day Tuesday through Saturday with the Cal team and by himself Sunday. Weight training takes place in a home gym constructed in Murphy’s garage, usually in the pre-dawn hours.
“Managing both is obviously a challenge, and puts a lot of time commitments on my plate, but I think I’m managing as well as I can, and then obviously having a little 16-month-old girl now, she keeps you busy when with the work day is done, too,” Murphy said. “In terms of the training in the pool, I feel good. I’m not probably not doing as much as I want to be able to do, but for everything I’m managing, I think I’m doing a good job.”
Recovery, on the other hand, has been tricky to fit into the schedule, but Murphy plans to cut back his work schedule as he gets closer to 2028. He expects to go part-time in early 2027 and then take a leave of absence in the final leadup to Olympic Trials.
“On the working front with Norwest, I was getting really positive feedback there, and it feels like there’s long term opportunities to be an impactful member of that team,” he said. “If I want to have a 10-plus, 20-plus year career in a place like that, stepping back for a year and a half probably isn’t the biggest deal.”
Training has felt not too different from the previous decade, even with Murphy approaching his 31st birthday. Murphy has enjoyed reuniting with old teammates and meeting new ones. Unsurprisingly, Eevi has become a welcome visitor on deck in Berkeley.
A New Competitive Reality
Ryan Murphy — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
His return to competition took place in late May at a USA Swimming Pro Series meet in Sacramento, where Murphy won the 50 backstroke with a time of 25.17 and took second in the 100 in 53.91. In the two-lap race, Murphy came in behind Daniel Diehl, a swimmer 10 years younger who was the second-quickest American in the event last year.
“It’s a decent start,” Murphy said. “Competitions are really good to basically reinforce some things that you felt in practice or you thought you could improve on in practice. It really is kind of in-your-face at a competition when you just get one rep to do it. I had four opportunities to do a start. I felt like each start got better throughout the meet.”
Murphy listed off technical elements that need tweaking, including posture out of the breakout, getting into rhythm quickly and his approach to turns. His meet-day routine, including what he should eat before finals and when he should eat, felt particularly “rusty.”
Next up will be an appearance at the Indianapolis Pro Series, which will serve as his focus meet for the summer. Murphy does not plan to compete at U.S. Nationals, scheduled for late July in Irvine, with Bridget due to give birth to the couple’s second daughter around that time. After that, he will begin building toward the 2027 season, with plans to target the 2027 World Championships team.
For right now, he plans to stick with the shorter backstroke events and avoid the 200, a race in which he won Olympic gold back in 2016 and a world title in 2022. That decision is a calculated one based on present circumstances, and Murphy admitted he may pick up the event again in the next year.
“I’m in the water six times a week right now, and I don’t necessarily think that’s enough to go do the 200,” he said. “Mostly training 100 back for this season. We’ll see at some point. I’d imagine 100 back remains the main focus. We’ll see whether I want to expand it to the 50 back or the 200. For this summer, it will be the 50, and then we’ll reassess after this summer.”
Of course, his swimming ambitions and routines have now shrunk in relative importance to his duties as a father.
“I feel like in a lot of ways being a dad just simplifies things,” Murphy said. “Obviously it adds a lot of tasks to your plate, but Eevi is excited when she’s able to give you a high five. She’s excited that she’s learned words like up and down, yes and no, very simple things. She’s able to communicate her basic wants, and so that’s a really fun thing. There’s a level of joy in those simple things. I just love that, seeing her grow up and learn and be excited.”