Murphy bristles after 2nd defeat to Russian
Cal backstroker Ryan Murphy ignited a firestorm Thursday night after the men’s 200-meter backstroke at the Tokyo Games, calling out swimming to clean up its doping problem.
Murphy hinted at a doping accusation after losing for the second consecutive race to Russian Evgeny Rylov, leading to an awkward news conference with the gold and silver medalists sitting side by side.
“I’ve got about like 15 thoughts,” Murphy told reporters when asked about performance-enhancing drugs. “Thirteen of them would get me into a lot of trouble.”
Murphy, who swept the backstroke races at the 2016 Rio Games, won a silver medal Thursday, 0.88 of a second behind Rylov, who also won the 100 backstroke. Rylov won Thursday in an Olympic-record time of 1 minute 53.27 seconds.
Rylov and teammate Kliment Kolesnikov finished first and second in the 100 backstroke to break the United States’ stranglehold on the events. The Americans had won 12 consecutive gold medals in the previous six Olympics.
Murphy, who finished third in the 100 backstroke, did not specifically call out any opponent in discussing the sport’s drug problems.
But many around the world called for Russia’s ban from the Olympics after reports in 2016 showed the country had run a statesponsored doping system that was exposed at the 2014 Sochi Games.
In a slap on the wrist, the International Olympic Committee had athletes compete under the name the Russian Olympic Committee.
Murphy said he didn’t object to having Russian athletes appear in Tokyo.
“There is a situation, and that’s a problem,” Murphy said. “I’m sorry there is a situation. I don’t know enough about it to give a 100% answer.”
Murphy acknowledged it’s risky to make accusations without fact-based evidence although many agree that drug-test protocols cannot catch every athlete.
“I don’t know if it was 100% clean because of things that have happened over the past,” he said. “To be clear, my intention is not to make any allegations here.”
Bronze medalist Luke
Greenbank of Great Britain supported Murphy, saying, “it is frustrating as an athlete that there is a statesponsored doping program going on.”
Murphy said the situation has been mentally draining “to go throughout the year knowing that I’m swimming in a race that is probably not clean.”
He continued: “It frustrates me but I have to swim in the field that’s next to me. I don’t have the bandwidth to train for the Olympics at a really high level, and also try to lobby people making decisions that they’re making wrong decisions.”
Murphy talked to Brent Nowicki, the new executive director of the international swimming federation, last month at the U.S. swimming trials.
Murphy said Nowicki acknowledged issues with illegal drug use and said it
could not be solved easily.
“It’s tough to hear,” Murphy said.
Indiana’s Lilly King, who won a silver medal in the 200 breaststroke on Thursday, has been outspoken about drug use in swimming since the Rio Games.
But she brushed aside any discussions when asked about Murphy’s comments.
“I’m confident my heat was clean,” King told reporters. “That’s all I have to say about that.”
For the most part, swimming has been immune from major drug scandals unlike track and field, cycling and weightlifting.
One of the biggest swimming cases involves China’s Sun Yang, a three-time Olympic champion who was banned from competing in Tokyo. He was found to have tampered with a sample during drug collection at his home in 2018.