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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 at the Paris Olympics.
Murphy won a bronze medal on Monday, local time, in the 100-metre backstroke.
ABC Sport is live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics
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.
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"We both — we honestly both thought it was going to be a boy.
"And everyone — like everyone — we were talking to, they thought it was going to be a boy."
A big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL, Murphy pointed out that quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his wife also have a daughter on the way.
"I hope our daughters can be friends," Murphy 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."
AP
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