Four-time Olympic gold medal winner Ryan Murphy is an American competition swimmer. He is a backstroke specialist and once held the men’s 100-meter backstroke world record. Murphy swept the backstroke competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, taking gold in the 100- and 200-meter events. He also won a gold medal in the 4100-meter medley relay alongside Michael Phelps, Nathan Adrian, and Cody Miller, and Murphy’s backstroke relay leg broke the previous world record that Aaron Peirsol had established in 2009.

Murphy won a gold medal, a world record, a silver medal in the 200-meter backstroke, a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke, and two other medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 4×100-meter medley relay with Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, and Zach Apple.

Murphy revealed that he is roughly 95% Irish by lineage in a 2021 interview with SwimSwam’s Melvin Stewart; his mother is 100% Irish and his father is roughly 90% Irish. Murphy was raised in a devout Roman Catholic household and is still devoted to his religion. On day two of the 2022 US International Team Trials in Greensboro, North Carolina, Murphy qualified for the 200-meter backstroke final by placing third in the preliminary heats with a time of 1:57.46 and winning the final with a time of 1:55.01. He also competed in the 50-meter backstroke final, finishing fourth with a time of 24.57, and the 100-meter backstroke final, finishing second to Hunte.