Olympic Swimming 2021: Men's 200m Backstroke Medal Winners, Times and Results

Russian Olympic Committee's Evgeny Rylov came into the men's 200-meter backstroke  event as the favorite. He lived up to the hype. 

Rylov set an Olympic record with a time of 1:53.27, holding off the United States' Ryan Murphy (1:54.15) and Great Britain's Luke Greenbank (1:54.72) to claim the gold medal. 

Russian athletes at the Tokyo Games are competing under the banner of the ROC after Russia's name, flag and anthem were banned from this year's Olympics over a state-sponsored doping program and subsequent cover-up.

Rylov is having a strong Olympics, having already won gold in the 100-meter backstroke. Both golds have been important for the ROC, whose men had a cold streak in the pool before Rylov snapped it:

"I was overwhelmed by joy ... now I just have to prove myself in other events," Rylov told reporters after winning the 100-meter backstroke. "I do understand the sky is the limit but I have achieved a very important result and of course I felt a huge relief."

Make that two very important results. 

Beating Murphy was no small task—he won the golds in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke at the 2016 Rio Games. And Murphy had some strong thoughts about the race afterwards:

Murphy probably isn't the only athlete who feels that way. But he certainly didn't pull any punches after his silver-medal swim.