Ponte Vedra Beach native Ryan Murphy earned his 14th USA Swimming national team selection in September, the most among active American male swimmers.

Murphy, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, qualified for the 2026-27 roster in the 100-meter backstroke. He won the event at the national championships in Indianapolis in June with a time of 52.80 seconds, making him the only American to break 53 seconds during the yearlong selection window, according to the St. Johns Citizen.

The selection came after Murphy returned from an approximately 18-month break from competition.

How the national team is selected

USA Swimming named 101 athletes to the roster based on performances between Sept. 1, 2025, and Aug. 31, 2026, SwimSwam reported. The organization selected the top five swimmers in each individual Olympic event and the top six in the 100 and 200 freestyle.

Murphy, 31, is targeting a fourth Olympic berth at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, when he would be 33. Making the national team does not guarantee an Olympic spot. He would still need to finish in the top two in an individual event at the 2028 U.S. Olympic trials, which have not yet been scheduled.

Nine Olympic medals across three Games

Murphy has won nine medals across three Olympics. He swept the 100- and 200-meter backstroke at the 2016 Rio Games and has reached the podium in the 100 backstroke at three consecutive Olympics.

In Paris in 2024, he added a bronze in the 100 backstroke, a gold in the mixed 4x100 medley relay that set a world record and a silver in the men's 4x100 medley relay.

Hometown roots and a swim school business

Murphy graduated from the Bolles School and became an eight-time NCAA individual champion at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a business degree from the Haas School of Business.

He co-owns Goldfish Swim School-Saint Johns on County Road 210 with his parents, Pat and Katy Murphy, and his grandfather, Mike Sullivan. The children's swim school opened in October 2024 as the franchise's first Northeast Florida location.

"I'm looking forward to the LA Olympics. I'm really going to make a push for that," Murphy told the St. Johns Citizen when the school opened. "But I've also spent a lot of time on the business, and I'm really excited about it and just the growth of the area overall."