Olympic champion Ryan Murphy traded the pool for the San Francisco Bay this past weekend as a competitor in the 2023 Sharkfest Alcatraz swim.
Murphy completed the 1.5 mile-long course in a final time of 35:04, which earned him 3rd in the non-wetsuit category and 6th across all categories. Winning among the non-wetsuit swimmers was Colter Knight, who crossed the line a fraction of a second ahead of Murphy when the race ended on the sand.
Murphy recently competed at the 2023 World Championships this July in Fukuoka, Japan. Murphy, a Team USA co-captain, came away with an individual gold medal in the 100 backstroke, as well a gold in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, a silver in the 200 backstroke, and a bronze in the mixed 4×100 medley relay.
Nearly 900 athletes between the ages of 12 and 75 took on the swim, which began on the east side of Alcatraz Island and ended in Aquatic Park in San Francisco. In addition to age groups, the race is divided into five categories including wetsuit, non-wetsuit, physically challenged, boat assisted, and flippers.
Former University of Michigan and Georgia Tech swimmer Clark Wakeland posted the top time of all categories at 31:22. On the women’s side, Victoria Smith clocked the fastest time with a 35:42, while 16-year-old Emmy Loftus was the quickest among non-wetsuit women at 36:40.
Kevin Hallman, the creator of the Swimulator tool, also raced and crossed the line at 36:56 to take 12th in the wetsuit category.
You can view complete results of the 2023 Sharkfest Alcatraz swim here.
The real question…how much of the swim did he do backstroke?
All joking aside, I did a local 1 mile open water swim about a decade ago and the one dude who passed me the entire swim did so while swimming backstroke!
Thats talent. Was it a big name?
Did Clark wear a wetsuit?
Kevin’s time converts to a 46:27 SCY.
35min seems slow, no?
The Sharkfest is more of a celebration than a competition
The swim from Alcatraz Island is REALLY cold and the current is very strong
Great to see he went with the traditional open water rules of no wetsuit.
This is hilarious
Curious what the water temp was. Could be uncomfortable for pool swimmers used to 80 degrees.
This August the SF Bay temperature has been historically warm. Today it is 67F compared to the Avg for this date of 61F. The average overall for the Bay is 54-58F, so this was unusually warm.
Wow, another worrying sign.
I remember in college swearing to our coach that the pool was far too cold. Blue lips, people shivering. He kept checking the thermometer, and it was reading a normal temperature. Turned out the thermometer was broken, and we were really practicing in a 70 degree pool. I think the ideal temperature for competition is 78.
its that warm? I always thought cold pools were around 70.
I could be wrong in saying 70 degrees because we’re talking about 5 or 6 years ago. I think cold pools are around 75/76 though. An ideal ice bath is probably 55 degrees..maybe at most 60.