Three-time 2016 Olympic Champion Ryan Murphy regained his focus in 2018 sweeping 100-200 backstroke at the Pan Pacific Championships. Coming off of Short Course Worlds, after the holidays, Cal hammered a hard training camp at the Olympic Training Center, one which head coach Dave Durden said was their best to date. In this interview, Ryan breaks down the training environment, and why he thinks Cal is on the road to success.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WORD CHAMPIONSHIPS
With solid work under his Ryan and more to come this spring, how fast will Ryan swim at 2019 World Championships? I know it’s early for predictions, but Ryan’s a stalwart star. He always performs, even when he’s slightly off, like at 2017 Worlds. He won bronze in the 100m back, 52.59, but swam a 52.34 on the leadoff of the mixed medley relay. In 200m back he was 1:54.2 for the silver.
Ryan – Olympics in Rio:
- 100m back – 51.85 (PB)
- 200m back – 1:53.62
Ryan – 2018 Pan Pacs:
- 100m back – 51.94
- 200m back – 1:53.57 (PB)
Mel Prediction for 2019 Worlds:
- 100m back – 51.6-7
- 200m back – 1:53.0
I know 1:53.0 is a tall order and a shaky prediction. Evgeny Rylov has been coming on strong, edging Ryan at 2017 Worlds and topping the 2018 Word Rankings with his European Champs win, 1:53.36. However, 2019 is a defining year, a moment when Ryan’s got to double-down on his 2-back training if he wants to stop the Rylov onslaught. What do you think?
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
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I always look forward to these
Thanks….. Let’s get ready for a big year in swimming!
It will be great year without a doubt
I think aaron peirsol’s WR is crazy. He was only wearing the legs too, so I don’t know if it’s even fair to put it in the same class as the other ridiculous suited records.
Peirsol was otherworldly in backstroke……and I’m still a wee bit jealous. Most elites are driven by something raw, sometimes even a little dark. Peirsol raced with this zen-like approach. Agreed. His 1:51, even in the super-suit era, is off the charts amazing.
Kinda makes you wonder what Phelps or Lochte would have been in an arena x glide.
That 200m back record may be untouchable for now.
Murphy/Lochte/Larkin/Rylov/Xu all at their peak haven’t really been close to it.
The year before the Olympics, that particular World Champs, often sees the fastest swims. I wonder if someone will pop something stupidly fast. BUT, Peirsol was magical. I think it’s too tough to dip into the 51s at this point in history.
I could see Rylov or Murphy cracking 1:53 this year but even that would be a pretty incredible swim
The question has become whether athletes/events are so specialized now that his best 200 back detracts from winning the 100 back and whether we’ll ever again have a 100/200 #1 in both events of any stroke. For whatever reason (probably fewer stroke technical innovations) backstroke has been the holdout in this trend. Schooling, Peaty, Dressel don’t even try the 200s of fly, breast, free any more.
Dressel does 200 free..
there have always been 100 specialists and 200 specialists. There will continue to be people who can do both. Murphy won 100/200 gold in 2016 so it seems weird to wonder if it will EVER happen again haha
I think we just happen to have a series of good 100 specialists on the men’s side at the moment in Peaty/Schooling. (Even with them, Dressel and Schooling could be good 200 flyers, they just don’t focus on that event much in favor of other things, and Peaty does have a good 200 breast: 2:08.3 lifetime-best.)
Pretty much all the good male backstrokers (Xu, Kolesnikov, Rylov, Murphy, Irie, Larkin) do both the 100 and 200. And most of the top women in the non-free strokes are also multi-distance threats (King, Efimova, Baker, Seebohm, Masse, R.Smith, Zhang Yufei). The only real exception is women’s fly, where the field is currently dominated by sprint fly/free hybrids like Sjostrom and Ikee, who could… Read more »
There is no such a thing as “200m” specialist. The weirdest competition that isn’t related to any biological features like muscle type or respiratory and endocrine system. Who are in this competition? The ones who had little chances for success in sprint and are not tough enough (endurance) to swim 400. Or some exceptionally rear talents like Sjostrom from the sprint side or Ledecky and Sun from the long distance side who in no way like this distance. No wonder that of a few suit records left on the women’s side practically all of them are about 200.
200 distance is too long to have enough body’s first response resources to the stress and is too short to to… Read more »
Mel, not to be a complainer, because I love your videos, but Ryan didn’t sweep the 50 and100 Back at Short-Course Worlds. He got silver in the 50 and 200 Back.
I know. I didn’t catch it until after it went live. So, I’m in Swimnews jail.
Is Mel the one who does the interviews at the interviews these videos are from?
I used to capture all SwimSwam videos. Can’t anymore. SwimSwam’s too big with too many responsibilities for any one person. Everyone wears lots of hats. Coleman captures a lot of video now.
Coleman is doing a great job with those interviews
I like these “gold medal minutes” and how they are presented by the Host.
Do you discuss your predictions with interviewees or ask about their targets (times)? How do you come up with these numbers? Is it some sort of intuitive statistical analysis or you just feel like that?
I wouldn’t ask you, but you constantly do this (predictions) like it is necessary part of production and sometimes your very weird predictions become very true. Thank you.
I’ve been playing the prediction since I was 10 yrs old. From the age of 10 i knew everyone’s PBs and all of the splits. I think the prediction game is how our brain’s work as competitors, coaches or fans. The beauty of it is no matter how much experience or insider info you have, you can get it wildedly wrong… I always go to 3-4 people with my predictions as a gut check. My predictions can lean too far into the hopefully positive category. My tight circle provide their opinions and fair warning, “Mel. No. You want the elite to swim that fast, and it is not realistic.” That advice happens from time to time.
Well, Ryan called 2018 a launch pad. Let’s wish him a rocket start.
From a career standpoint, OG medals standpoint, Murph is on target. His 100m is solid. That delivers medals in the individual event + relay(s). The 2-back is a bonus. I could see his 2-back being faster this year, re: heavier training this year. By 2020, heavy training should be backed down a notch. I think overtraining the Olympic yr is the biggest danger for any elite at the top—-in the medal hunt.
It’s too bad that Ryan only races his big international competition a couple times a year or only once sometimes.
So, it’s a long build-up for all of them to the 2019 Worlds, where they will line up next to each other for the Big Race.
Ryan has plenty of competition, so it’s not a given that he’ll win. He is the favorite though.
Ryan’s onboard with ISL – International Swimming League. So, there’s hope he’ll ramp up his high-level racing. Also, I think he’ll race more as a pro as he gets older. There will come a time when he dials-down to just the 100m and pushes his speed only. Maybe not, but when these pros are late 20s, early 30s, that’s a logical path. We’ll see…
Great how Ryan focuses on 5 things to fix, and then next month another 5 things. If it were only that simple!