US swimmer Ryan Murphy receives gender reveal from wife as he collects Olympic medal

La Défense Arena in Paris became the unlikely scene for a gender-reveal on Monday night.

After claiming bronze in the men’s 100 metres backstroke, American swimmer Ryan Murphy enjoyed a double surprise after discovering his wife was expecting a baby girl.

Murphy had barely stepped off the podium when he noticed his wife, Bridget Konttinen, in the stands holding up a sign with the news which read, ‘Ryan, it’s a girl!’

“I was walking back around and Bridget was holding up a sign and it said – ‘Ryan, it’s a girl,’” said Murphy, who finished behind China’s silver medallist Xu Jiayu and Italy gold medal winner Thomas Ceccon. “That was the first time I heard the gender.”

“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.”

Murphy’s bronze in the pool was his third Olympic medal in the distance and the seventh of his career, after winning a trio of gold medals at the Rio Games in 2016 where he swept the backstroke events, winning gold medals in both the 100 and 200m backstroke races. He added to his medal haul in Tokyo, where he claimed a gold, a silver and a bronze.

Ryan said the unexpected gender reveal made his triumph in the pool all the more special. “I think that just kind of lit me up,” he said. “And really brought this night to a whole other level.”

Murphy, who is an avid fan of the Florida-based American football team Jacksonville Jaguars, 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, who credited his wife for supporting his Paris bid after his triumph, will be back in the pool to swim the men’s 200m backstroke on Wednesday.

“When you have to analyse swimming things at such a granular level and really be a perfectionist, it’s easy to turn that perfectionism in on yourself and start analysing your own personality characteristics and stuff like that,” he said.

“Having her gives me a lot of great balance in my life. She’s someone who could say, ‘Hey, Ryan, you’re going a little bit too hard at this, you can be a little bit softer on yourself today.’ She’s great for me and helps me keep a level head on things.”

Meanwhile, the city of love has seen a number of engagements among Olympians in recent days.

Pablo Simonet, a player for Argentina’s national handball team, proposed to Maria Campoy, a member of the country’s women’s hockey team, in front of team-mates inside the athlete village last week.

The pair have been a couple since 2015 and both competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Eight years after experiencing their first Games together, Simonet plucked up the courage to ask Campoy ahead of the opening ceremony.

Spanish judoka Laura Martínez received a special surprise at the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday when her boyfriend Jose Aranda, who is also a member of Spain’s judo team, popped the question.

Martínez was left in tears after missing out on a place on the podium against France’s Shirine Boukli in her bronze medal fight last Sunday. But three days later, her tears of despair became ones of joy when Aranda went down on one knee at the foot of Paris’s most famous landmark.

It comes after Lady Gaga seemingly confirmed her own engagement rumours while watching the artistic women’s gymnastics qualifying competition last Sunday, days after performing at the Olympic opening ceremony.

In a video posted by French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, on TikTok, the pop star was heard introducing her long-time boyfriend, Michael Polansky as “my fiancé, Michael”. The pair have been dating for more than four years.

Gaga was one of several celebrities in the crowd who watched US champion gymnast Simone Biles make her highly anticipated return to the Olympics, three years after she withdrew from several finals at the Tokyo Olympics after suffering from the ‘twisties’ – a mental block that creates a dangerous disconnect between mind and body while gymnasts are airborne.

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