U.S. swimmer Ryan Murphy's wife surprises him with gender reveal after he wins medal
It's a girl.
That's the surprise message that American swimmer Ryan Murphy got from the pool deck as he looked up at his wife, Bridget Konttinen, in the stands on Monday night at the Paris Olympics.
Murphy won a bronze on Monday in the 100-meter backstroke. As the medal ceremony wound down, he saw Konttinen holding up a sign to let him know their first child, due in January, will be a girl.
"I was walking back around and Bridget was holding up a sign and it said — 'Ryan, it's a girl,'" he said. "That was the first time I heard the gender."
Team USA and USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body, jointly shared a photo of the moment in an Instagram post Monday. In the image, Konttinen is standing off to the side of the arena and surrounded by a beaming group of people. She's holding the poster-sized sign that gave Murphy the news.
"Step 1: Win an Olympic medal. Step 2: Find out you're going to be a girl dad," the post's caption read. Among numerous reactions shared in the post's comments section was one from Olympic superstar and former competitive swimmer Michael Phelps, who congratulated Murphy.
Rowdy Gaines, another retired Olympic swimmer who now covers the Games as an NBC analyst, also reacted to Konttinen's reveal in a post on social media, which Team USA and USA Swimming overlayed on the Instagram photo.
"This is so much bigger than ANY medal," Gaines wrote in his post. "Congrats Murph!!"
Murphy told the Associated Press that Konttinen's reveal surprised him in more ways than one.
"We both — we honestly both thought it was going to be a boy," he said. "And everyone — like everyone — we were talking to, they thought it was going to be a boy."
A big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Murphy pointed out that quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his wife also have a daughter on the way.
"I hope our daughters can be friends," he said.
Murphy won three gold medals in Rio in 2016, and a gold, a silver and a bronze in Tokyo in 2021. He won his first medal in Paris after finishing behind winner Thomas Ceccon of Italy and Xu Jiayu of China.
As soon as Murphy started talking about the gender news, none of the questions returned to his race. It was all about the baby.
"I think that just kind of like lit me up." he said. "And really brought this night to a whole other level."