U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS - SWIMMING

June 17, 2024

Ryan Murphy

Lucas Oil Stadium

Media Conference

Q. Your consistency continues on the same plane. How have you been able to maintain it without really any noticeable wobbles?

RYAN MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, I try to be as consistent as possible every day. I think the biggest thing in a sport like swimming where we kind of have few opportunities to race at this level, you have to pull motivation from a lot of different parts of your life.

And so I feel like I've struck a good balance of some days, it's pulling motivation from just raw competitiveness and some days it's pulling motivation from focusing on technique. Some days, it's really just being disciplined with your routine.

So I feel like I've got a really good group of people around me that keep me grounded, and you know, I'm really motivated to try to improve.

Q. We've seen some really great coach/swimmer relationships in this sport. You and Dave Duren, it's an all-timer; it's 11 years now. Why does that work so well? Why do you two work so well together, and why does he continue to help you on this path that you've been on for so long?

RYAN MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, I can't talk from Dave's side. But from my side, I just have so much respect for Dave. I think the biggest thing that you want as an athlete is to know that your coach is constantly thinking about how you can improve, and Dave has an incredible work ethic. So I know at all times, he's working as hard as he can to maximize his athlete's potential.

And you can feel that across the group. So you know, we all come in and in a lot of ways, we want to work hard because we don't want to let Dave down. So he's the man. I've got a lot of love for Dave. Yeah, and it's been a great ride.

Q. Going into these games, is there any extra motivation after the Silver and Bronze to get back on top like you were in Rio? Where is your state of mind thinking of the last Olympics?

RYAN MURPHY: There's definitely no shortage of motivation from my end. I've had a bit of fire -- I feel like I've always got a fire under my butt. I feel like I'm a really motivated person.

Yeah, definitely coming off the last Olympics, I want to win every time I touch the water, whether that's a Monday morning practice or an Olympic finals.

Yeah, I want to go to the Olympics and I want to win.

Q. Given there's been questions about clean sport with swimming, has that been on your mind and what are your general thoughts?

RYAN MURPHY: I think from my side, I've had conversations with the people in the U.S. government. I've had conversations with people high up at World Aquatics. I've had conversations with U.S. Anti-Doping. So I'm definitely behind the scenes expressing my thoughts and learning everything I can about what's going on, and I'm going to continue to do that.

Q. You always seem so calm and poised through the these stressful meets. Obviously it's stressful for everybody. At what point does sink in, the magnitude of what you've been able to accomplish, and especially this time what you've been able to accomplish again?

RYAN MURPHY: For now I'm already thinking about the 200 back. So when I'm in a meet, it's really just trying to stay in it. After this meet, I'll probably give myself a day to let it soak in, but after that, I'll be right on to the Olympics and trying to be great there.

So I've always thought that I'll appreciate my career a little bit more when I'm done swimming, and I can kind of zoom out. For right now, I'm really zoomed in on everything I'm doing on a day-to-day basis.

Q. You arguably have the best back stroke start in the world. How would you rate this backstroke start, and was it better than Hunter's yesterday? Trevor Lawrence is 1-2 in Lucas Oil, you're 1-0. Would you say you're better than Trevor Lawrence?

RYAN MURPHY: I would say on the first one, my start was definitely better than Hunter's start last night. I didn't see Hunter's start tonight. I'm assuming it was better than last night's, though I'm hoping Trevor keeps on adding some wins to that record in Lucas Oil. They have some more tall weapons on offense, so we'll see how it goes.

Q. You've known Caeleb Dressel for an extremely long time. What's your take on his comeback, and what do you expect from him and what has he said to you that's been especially revealing?

RYAN MURPHY: I honestly haven't seen him since we've been out here. But he's going tomorrow. I'm expecting great performances. Caeleb is a gamer. He'll be ready to rock. He likes the bright lights, so I'm expecting great things.

Q. In the early 2000s, a lot was made about the leadership of Aaron Pierce and how Zen of a guy he was. Every time he got in the water he would let the swimming speak for itself and get things done. Now as a three-time Olympian, can you talk about your perspective that you've given this U.S. Team and compare your emotions now to your first Olympic Team in 2016?

RYAN MURPHY: Yeah, sure. So there's so many different styles of leadership, and I still view Aaron as a leader, to me. Like he called me a couple days before Trials this time around. Talked to me a couple days ago, too.

We've always had really good leadership on Team USA, and I think my leadership style is just a blend of all of those guys. I view Aaron as someone who is really chill. And like you said, he went out and kind of let the performance do the talking.

I think Lenny is someone -- Lenny is someone where I think my personality and Lenny's is really similar. Like he doesn't really ever turn it off. He's kind of going, going, going, on to the next thing, always trying to be great.

I think my leadership style is I try to tell stories. I want our team to feel as comfortable as possible when they walk on to the deck at the Olympics for the first time. So any anecdotes I can give to help them feel comfortable, that's what I'm trying to do.

In terms of the emotions this time compared to the first Olympic Trials or the first time I made the team in 2016, yeah, I think it's totally different. Like in 2016, I was like, giddy. I was a little kid.

And I felt like I went into that 100 back final in 2016, I was so nervous. I was lined up next to Matt Grevers and David Plumber, both guys who are in their 30s and really had a ton of experience under their belt and were swimming really well. So I knew I had to have really, really good swim in order to make the team in 2016, and that was the most pressure I had ever dealt with at that point.

So that was kind of -- I didn't know how it would turn out. I didn't know how I would deal with the pressure. Where this time around, I feel really confident. When I go into a big final and there's a lot of pressure, I feel like I can perform really well in that circumstance.

So going into tonight, I had a lot of confidence that, yeah, I was super nervous, but I know I can handle that well. So tonight, it was a little more comfortable compared to 2016.