On Sunday, Florida swimmer [autotag]Johnny Marshall[/autotag], representing Great Britain, placed 14th in the 100-meter backstroke at the [autotag]Paris Olympics[/autotag], ending his run at the Summer Games in the semifinals.
Marshall’s 53.46-second finish was almost a full second behind semifinal heat leader Thomas Ceccon of Italy (52.48), and China’s Jiayu Xu blew away all competition with a 52.02 in the second heat. Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and South Africa’s Pieter Coetze tied for third at 52.63 — an African record.
Marshall snuck into the semifinal with a 53.93-second finish in the heats, good enough to claim the 16th and final qualifying spot. With that in mind, a 14th-place finish looks nice, but Marshall came into the Olympics hoping to improve on a 53.03-second finish at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.
Still just 19 years old, Marshall is one of Great Britain’s bright young stars in the sport. He’ll look to dominate the SEC over the next three seasons with Florida in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Jonny Marshall at the University of Florida
As a freshman in 2023-24, Marshall competed in 30 events over eight different meets/invitationals for the Gators. He won five individual events and finished inside the top three 10 times.
He earned three gold medals at the SEC Championship, which Florida won as a team. He set a new program record to win the 200-yard backstroke, also setting an SEC Meet record.
Marshall earned two All-American honors at the NCAA Championships. He competed in the 100 and 200 Backstroke and was the only freshman to compete in the 100 Back and 200 Back Championship Finals
Prior to his time with Florida, Marshall was a national team member and 2022 Junior European gold medalist in the 400 medley relay — he also won silver in the 50m back and bronze in the 100m back.
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