World Championships, Day Two Finals: Ryan Murphy Shakes The World Record With Emphatic 100m Backstroke Gold

MURPHY'S ROAR: Two swims and two gold on Night Two in Melbourne for US backstroking king Ryan Murphy. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet

Ryan Murphy Shakes The World Record With Emphatic 100 Backstroke Gold

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy has created his own slice of swimming history at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne tonight, becoming the first US swimmer to win a second 100 backstroke crown and his second gold medal of the night.

Day 2 Results
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The 27-year-old led all the way to score an emphatic victory, his first time under 49 seconds with a time of 48.50 – just 0.17 outside fellow American Coleman Stewart’s world record. Silver went to Italy’s Lorenzo Mora in 49.04 with “outside smoke” in lane eight, Australia’s Isaac Cooper taking the bronze in a personal best of 49.52.

Earlier in the night, Murphy led the U.S. to gold in a world record time in a thrilling 4x50m mixed medley relay win with Nic Fink, Kate Douglass and Torri Huske.

Murphy won the event in Hangzhou in 2018 when he joined a who’s who of U.S. backstrokers to take gold in this event, with Tripp Schwenk winning the inaugural World SC Championships in Palma de Majorca in 1993. Other champs from the U.S. in the event include Neil Walker (2000), Aaron Peirsol (2004), Matt Greevers (2012) and Murphy (2018), with Shaine Casas winning in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

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