Ryan Murphy got another Olympic medal, this one a silver.
The Bolles graduate swam a 1:54.15 to finish second in the 200-meter backstroke on Thursday night. Murphy won the event in the 2016 Rio Games, but couldn’t nab a repeat this time. Russian Evgeny Rylov had an Olympic-record 1:53.27 to win the gold.
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Murphy won a bronze earlier this week in the 100 back.
He hit the 100-meter mark in third place with a 55.63 and moved back into contention over the final 50 meters. But Rylov closed strong and denied Murphy, beating him by .88.
Murphy won both the 100 and 200 back in 2016, and took another gold in the 4x100 medley relay in which he set a world record with a 51.85 lead leg in the 100 back.
Among area athletes on Team USA in Tokyo, Murphy’s medal marks the fifth so far. Swimmer Caeleb Dressel, who swam with Murphy in both the River City Swim League and with the Bolles Sharks club program, won gold in the 100 freestyle and in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Former Mandarin star Michelle Moultrie won a silver medal as part of the United States’ runner-up softball team.
Dressel set an Olympic record in his semifinal of the 100 fly earlier Thursday night, swimming a 49.71 to surge into Friday’s final.