Ryan Murphy Takes Down 50 Back American Record in 24.24

2018 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

100 back world record holder Ryan Murphy took down the 50 back American record in finals Friday night at the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships.

Murphy, who was the No. 7 American in history before Friday, went 24.24, which included an extremely-fast 0.48 reaction time. The time also gets him the U.S. Open record, previously owned by Junya Koga (24.36 from 2015), and meet record, previously owned by Justin Ress (24.41 from 2017).

The previous American record of 24.33 belonged to Randall Bal, set in 2008. Murphy beat out last year’s national champion Ress, who was also under the old American record in 24.31, and third-place Ryan Held (24.60). Murphy, 23, was the No. 5 qualifier heading into finals with his 24.63 prelims swim. He also won the 200 back Thursday by over a second (1:54.15).

With the win, Murphy punches his ticket to the 2019 FINA World Championships next summer. He now holds the No. 1 time in the world this year, and Ress the No. 2.

Fastest American Performers: Men’s 50 back
1 Ryan Murphy 24.24
2 Justin Ress 24.31
3 Randall Bal 24.33
4 David Plummer 24.52
5 Matt Grevers 24.54
6 Michael Andrew 24.59
7 Ryan Held 24.59
8 Nick Thoman 24.82
9 Daniel Carr 24.86
10 John Shebat 24.88

2017-2018 LCM MEN 50 BACK

KlimentRUS
KOLESNIKOV
08/04
24.00 *WR*WJR
2Robert
GLINTA
ROU24.1208/03
3Ryan
MURPHY
USA24.2407/27
4Vladimir
MOROZOV
RUS24.2908/03
5Justin
RESS
USA24.3107/27
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5 years ago

It was one of the most fantastic starts I ever saw. His gliding was amazing!!!

jvog88
5 years ago

Without a doubt, the best backstroke start I’ve ever seen.

Anon
Reply to  jvog88
5 years ago

I noticed on his starts he delays going up so other swimmers are waiting a touch too long. He gets the advantage. It should be stopped

Coach Mike 1952
Reply to  Anon
5 years ago

It was still a legal start; others can do that too you know…

anon
Reply to  Coach Mike 1952
5 years ago

No on the starter’s signal “all swimmers are to immediately assume the starting position” When he delays the start he gets an advantage over the other swimmers. He is controlling the start whereas the other swimmers are waiting for the start.

Dudeman
Reply to  anon
5 years ago

piersol did the same thing throughout his career and it was never an issue. if the officials beleived he was delaying the start then they would call everyone down or disqualify him. Neither of those things happened so we can assume it’s fine with the officials

Admin
Reply to  Dudeman
5 years ago

One time when I was coaching summer league, we had a dad who used to swim in the 70s or 80s, who decided he was going to teach about 30% of the team (among other things, including some start where he was fully piked mid-air), to come down as slowly as possible, because the starter would SURELY then start the race only when THEY stopped moving, which is the rule. Of course, because he swam in the 70s or 80s, all of the parents thought this was brilliant, and they all sent their swimmers to this guy to learn his voodoo!

We coaches didn’t know he had done, until the meet started, and all of the kids started “taking their… Read more »

AWSI DOOGER
5 years ago

Credit to Rowdy for immediately spotlighting the .48 reaction time and focusing on Murphy throughout. If he is nitpick ripped you’ve got to applaud when proper also

Gator chomp
5 years ago

I heard from someone that his reaction time was 0.48

Intense Onlooker
Reply to  Gator chomp
5 years ago

I believe I also saw that Murphy’s prelims heat Mizzou’s Nick Alexander right next to him also had a stellar reaction time of .48. Very quick for both of them!

Hswimmer
5 years ago

Ress was mad

Swimmer
Reply to  Hswimmer
5 years ago

Ress and Held were amazing considering they rarely swim backstroke

Pvdh
Reply to  Swimmer
5 years ago

Can you talk about anything else but NC state swimmers

Swimmer
Reply to  Pvdh
5 years ago

In a word – no. It’s whats trending now. It’s all the rage.

Eagleswim
5 years ago

What an amazing picture! Feels like an anatomy lesson

Yozhik
Reply to  Eagleswim
5 years ago

I would call it disturbing…

Joe
5 years ago

Great race by Ryan against a stellar field. It was exciting to see Ryan drop down to the 50. Ryan is in a good position to win the 100 tomorrow which is insanely deep. If successful I think you have to think of Ryan as the backstroke king. Nothing against Aaron because he is awesome, but the landscape has changed and for Ryan to maneuver through it, is really special.

7th yewww
5 years ago

Please update the full top 25 world rankings if you can for those of us that just got onto it for the first time!

Love to Swim
Reply to  7th yewww
5 years ago

Here’s the official exhaustive complete list of ranking database.

http://www.fina.org/content/swimming-world-ranking

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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