Olympic Swimming 2016: Men's 200M Backstroke Medal Winners, Times and Results
Ryan Murphy added a second gold medal Thursday night at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, this one in the 200-meter backstroke.
Murphy swept the men's backstroke, posting a final time of 1:53.62. Mitch Larkin and Evgeny Rylov came in second and third.
| 1 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 1:53.62 |
| 2 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 1:53.96 |
| 3 | Evgeny Rylov | Russia | 1:53.97 |
| 4 | Xu Jiayu | China | 1:55.16 |
| 5 | Jacob Pebley | United States | 1:55.52 |
| 6 | Li Guangyuan | China | 1:55.89 |
| 7 | Christian Diener | Germany | 1:56.27 |
| 8 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:56.36 |
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Murphy entered the race as the favorite. On Monday, he earned gold in the 100-meter backstroke, becoming the sixth straight American swimmer to do so.
The 21-year-old then qualified for Thursday's final with relative ease. He placed fourth during the heats and then had the fourth-best time in the semifinals.
In the 100-meter race, Larkin started out strong but wore down the longer the race went on.ย
Murphy saved something for the final 25 meters and surged well ahead of the rest of the field. What was once a close race turned into a comfortable victory.
According to ESPN Stats & Information's Paul Carr, he's the fifth American to take both the men's 100-meter and 200-meter backstrokes:
NBC Sports' Joe Posnanski was surprised to see Murphy somewhat stoic despite his historic achievement:
The United States padded its lead atop the medal leaderboard in swimming as a result of Murphy's win. Team USA's nine golds are three times as many as second-placed Hungary and Australia, and 14 medals separate the U.S. and Australia in the overall standings.
