Double Gold For Bears At World Championships
BUDAPEST, Hungary – Two Golden Bears reached the top of the podium Thursday at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Duna Arena, as Ryan Murphy ('17) won his first individual world title in the 200-meter backstroke and Trenton Julian ('22) led the United States to a gold medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
Murphy's dominant week in Budapest continued with the Cal graduate outpacing the 200m back field with a 1:54.52 finish. The world title was the first of Murphy's career and it was his third medal at the 2022 world championships. He previously won silver in the 200m back in 2019 and 2017 and is now just the third American with three world championships medals in the event, joining Ryan Lochte and Aaron Peirsol.
"It's really special," Murphy said. "I mean, I think this is a really hard sport. For someone like me, I have one focus year to year. It's this one. So, one week out of 52 is what I am focusing on for the rest of the year. So, there's a ton of work that goes into this, not just on my end, but my coaches, my teammates. So, to come in, to win a medal for myself, for the people that help me and for my country is really special."
Julian swam on Team USA's 4x200m free relay squad in both prelims and finals and helped the Americans (7:00.24) earn their first world title in the event since 2013. Julian split 1:45.31 on the third leg of Team USA's relay en route to his first world title. The Glendale, California native was impressive in prelims as well, swimming 1:45.63 as the anchor to lead Team USA to the top seed.
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Hugo González ('22, Spain) and Zheng Quah ('20, Singapore) will compete in the 50m backstroke on Friday. Though lineups have not been announced, a number of Bears could be involved in the mixed 4x100m free relay.
Prelims for the pool competitions will begin daily from June 18-25 at 12 a.m. PT and will be streamed on FINA.org. Finals will be broadcasted on Olympic Channel beginning at 9 a.m. PT daily.
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