"I was absolutely crushed"- Ryan Murphy opens up on heartbreaking exit in the 200m backstroke semi-finals at the Paris Olympics

Ryan Murphy, the USA swim team captain at the 2024 Paris Olympics, recently opened up about his shock exit in the 200m backstroke semi-finals at the recently concluded Olympics. A six-time medalist heading into the Paris Games, the American had won three medals each in the two previous Olympics in Rio and Tokyo, all gold in the former while he bagged one of each color in the pandemic-struck Tokyo Games.

Though Murphy did lead the American contingent to the overall top spot in swimming with one gold more than Australia's seven, it was a drastic decline in absolute terms, with the captain acknowledging that other nations are catching up.

On a personal note, Murphy had a mixed bag of results in Paris. While he did help his squad set a new world record in the 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay and successfully defend his third place in 100m backstroke, the Tokyo 2020 runner-up in 200m backstroke crashed out of the event in the semifinal in what was a shock for the whole world.

Having won the gold in 2016 and the silver in 2020, Murphy was a sure-shot favorite to compete for the 200m crown in Paris. However, the American finished one-tenth of a second slower than the top eight in the semifinal, leading to his elimination.

He opened up about how the result crushed him at the moment but found a silver lining in the long run. He might not have broken the world record in the Mixed Medley Relay, had he competed in the finals.

"I was absolutely crushed about that result. And now I feel like I've thought about it in a better way. Every single time I go into a semi-final, I take a risk. Because my goal in the semi-finals is to try to get through to the final, with as little energy expenditure as possible."

"I think I try to look at the silver lining. I do think not swimming in that 200-meter back final maybe it made me a little bit faster on that mixed medley relay, and with how tight of a margin that race was, like if I'm, you know, if I'm 0.13 slower, like we get silver and we don't get the world record, so I try to look at the silver lining of things as well," said Murphy, via Forbes.

Ryan Murphy spoke about his experience captaining Team USA for the second consecutive Olympics

The American team that set the new world record in 4x100m Medley Relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics | Getty Images

Following a successful outing as captain in the Tokyo Olympics, Murphy was handed the title of the USA swim team captain again for the Paris Games, where his contingent finished atop the standings.

Speaking about the role, he added how it was an additional responsibility and that it allowed him to add a compliment to his experience.

""Yeah, absolutely. It adds a little bit of additional responsibility. But I like that. I think it's—I mean, you're voted captain. That's really a compliment to the experiences that you've had," said Murphy, per Forbes.