Breaking Down Ryan Murphy’s First 100 Backstroke Race Since the 2024 Paris Olympics ...Middle East

By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam

The long-awaited racing return for Ryan Murphy is finally here, and in his first 100 backstroke race since taking bronze in the individual event in Paris nearly two years ago, Murphy looked to be in solid form, clocking 53.91.

Despite not winning the event, Murphy still looked to be in great shape, finishing 2nd to NC State’s Daniel Diehl (53.74), even after not racing for 22 months.

When dissecting his race, some things remain the same as the Murphy of years past, such as the delayed pull-up at the start, the quick reaction time, and dominance over the first 25 meters.

The time Murphy threw down may not have been something we are accustomed to, considering that this 53.91 ranks as the 103rd-fastest time of his career, but the way it looked may have plucked at the nostalgic heartstrings for us fans.

For reference, Murphy has been faster than 53.5 84 times in his career, and of those 84 swims, over half (47, to be exact) have been under 53 seconds, including four career sub-52-second performances.

Below are four races of Murphy’s: his 100 back from yesterday’s Pro Swim Series in Sacramento, the 100 back final from the 2024 Pro Swim Series in Westmont in March of 2024, his 2020 Des Moines Pro Series race, and his fastest ever time of 51.85, which he swam leading off the gold-medal-winning 4×100 medley relay at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

This mix provides a nice variety of Murphy’s racing, such as his top form from 2016 and some races from non-major championship meets over the last six or so years. It is important to note that the way Murphy swims at the Olympics or World Championships may vary slightly from how he swims at a Pro Series or a domestic championship meet. And without the measurable factor of adrenaline, the following analysis is purely based on the human eye.

For your analytical pleasure, I suggest lowering the playback speed to watch Murphy’s stroke in slow motion.

2026 Pro Swim Series – Sacramento (53.91)

2024 Pro Swim Series – Westmont (53.23)

2020 Pro Swim Series – Des Moines (52.79)

2016 Olympic Games (51.85, Lifetime Best)

Breaking Down the Recent Race

In an honest reaction after watching these races extensively, one thought came to mind: “This guy is a robot.” Across all four swims, even at very different points of his career, Murphy is within a kick or a stroke in all four stages of the race: off the start, through the first 50, off the turn, and on the final 50.

Murphy’s reaction time has always been one that compares to some of the fastest in the world, and even at the age of 30, that is still a huge piece to his 100 back; his reaction time of .65 was the 2nd fastest in the final in Sacramento (only behind Ethan Ekk in 0.60).  Though in many of his top races, he is right at or under the .60 mark

Off the start, Murphy hit what looks to be somewhere between eight and eight and a half dolphin kicks underwater before his breakout, which is towards the middle to lower end of what we have seen in the past, such as Westmont in 2024, where he took nine kicks off the wall.

As for the stroke count, Murphy was dead on where he always has been, about 32 strokes to open the race. And on his final 50, he was one stroke off of what he was in those other three races, having taken 33 previously, but 34 in Sacramento.

Though the times are vastly different, and come in different stages of his career with a variety of event fields, Murphy, from the eye test, looked not too far off from where he left off.

The other three races shown came after previously racing the event multiple times that season, and with some big meets coming before or after; this one in Sacramento, however, was a long-awaited return.

Below is a visual comparison of Murphy’s underwater kicks and stroke counts from each of these four races.

*The video was either not clear on Murphy or was not clearly visible; therefore, it is the best estimate from what was shown

Differences

Murphy’s 2016 relay performance, which at the time broke the world record in 51.85, his head was dead still, level with the water’s surface, and minimal movement from left to right. In his race yesterday, though not completely visible, Murphy’s head appeared a touch more bouncy, though some of that could be from the outdoor lighting and the splash the water created.

One of the biggest differences in this race was the turnover rate, which as many coaches and athletes have experienced, varies race to race.

His tempo going out was about 97 beats per minute, while coming home, possibly due to a mixture of race rust and fatigue, slipped to about 93-94 beats per minute.

When looking back at those other races, in 2024, Murphy opened at about 92 beats per minute and actually got faster toward the finish, holding around 93 beats per minute coming home.

In 2020, he took his race out at a tempo of about 96 bpm and came back at about 95-96 bpm. As for his 2016 relay leadoff, Murphy was out at around 100-101 bpm and closed at 98 bpm (likely the pure adrenaline of both the Olympic stage and a key relay swim helped keep the rate high).

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