Palos Heights-native Ryan Murphy and the United States swimming team had never lost a 4x100m medley relay that they had entered in Olympic competition, but China put an end to that streak in heartbreaking fashion Sunday.
Murphy, who had captured gold in the event twice in his career, put up a time of 52.44 in the backstroke portion of the medley to kick things off for the U.S. squad.
Hunter Armstrong burned through his freestyle portion in 47.19 seconds, but it wasn’t enough as the U.S. won a silver medal.
The 4x100m medley relay has been contested in each Olympics since 1960. Prior to this year, the United States had captured the gold medal every time they had entered the race, with Australia taking the gold when the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Murphy had been a member of the last two medley-winning teams in 2016 and 2020, helping to set the world record in the latter edition of the event.
This time around however the United States couldn’t fend off China, who got an incredible anchor leg out of Pan Zhanle as he blistered the competition with a 45.92-second leg of the relay.
It’s not all bad news for Murphy. Even though he didn’t win a medal in the 200m backstroke, he did win a medal in the 100m backstroke for a third consecutive Olympics, and also captured a gold medal in the 4x100m mixed medley relay on Saturday.
Murphy has now won nine medals in his Olympic career, including five gold medals.