Olympic Champion Ryan Murphy Won’t Compete This Summer, Focuses on Career in Investing

5-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy won’t compete this summer, though he hasn’t called time on his career for good.

Instead, he says that he is going to spend more time with his wife Bridget and their daughter Eevi, born in January, and focus on career interest outside of the pool.

Murphy, who has long expressed an interest in finance and investment, has joined the Growth Equity team at Norwest Venture Partners, a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm with “over $15.5 billion” in capital, according to their website.

Murphy graduated from Cal with a degree in business.

I want to share an update that I won’t be competing this summer. Instead I’ll be able to spend more quality time with Bridget and Eevi and dive into career interests beyond swimming.

I’ve joined the Growth Equity team @NorwestVP focusing on sports investment opportunities. And… pic.twitter.com/01KWQsjsyx

— Ryan Murphy (@ryan_f_murphy) May 20, 2025

Murphy called this a “break from competition,” but added that he still has “unfinished goals in the sport and will keep the door open for what’s next.”

He follows a chorus of U.S. National Team members who have announced that they won’t race this summer, including fellow Olympian Luke Whitlock and National Teamer Jake Magahey.

Murphy, 29, last raced at the Paris Olympic Games, where he won a gold medal on the mixed medley relay, silver on the men’s medley relay, and bronze in the 100 back. That was his second-straight bronze medal in the 100 back.

He also swam the 200 back, placing 10th. Neither he nor his fellow Cal Bear Keaton Jones won a medal in that 200 back; that was the first time that the Americans missed the podium entirely at the Olympics since 1992.

Murphy is the former World Record holder int he 100 meter backstroke and swam the backstroke leg of the current World Record in the men’s 400 medley relay. In addition to his 9 Olympic medals (5 gold, 2 silver, 20 bronze), he also has 17 World Championship medals in long course and 14 more in short course.