By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Olympic swimmers Ryan Murphy and Abbey Wetizeil appeared on College GameDay on Saturday, marking more swimmer highlights from ESPN’s flagship Saturday morning college football pregame show.
Production began in the wee hours of the morning in Berkeley, with the show beginning at 9AM Eastern Time, which is 6AM California time.
Murphy told SwimSwam that “the pit” behind the broadcasters opened at midnight and that people started lining up Friday night to get a coveted spot. By the time that he arrived at 5:15 AM, it was almost full.
This was the show’s first visit to Berkeley in 31 years of on-location filming. The Golden Bears, 3-1, have only one win over a top 10 team in the last 20 years, and have the chance to grab another against #8 Miami in what is now somehow an intra-conference matchup in the world of realignment.
Cal is riding high this season with a 21-14 win over football blueblood Auburn and a narrow 14-9 loss to Florida State in their last outing two weeks ago.
The game kicks off at 10:30 Eastern, 7:30 Pacific, on Saturday.
Murphy, Weitzeil, and Canadian hammer thrower Camryn Rogers, another former Cal Golden Bear, were among the featured athletes. Rogers won a gold medal in Paris.
Murphy won three medals in Paris: bronze in the individual 100 backstroke, silver in the men’s 400 medley relay, and gold as a member of the finals quartet in the mixed 400 medley relay.
Weitzeil won gold as a prelims leg of that same mixed medley relay and added a silver via a finals swim in the women’s 400 free relay.
The group were stationed on a set of bleachers full of Cal Olympians and swimmers, and Murphy got some on-air interview time.
Cal grad Camryn Rogers put the GOLD in Golden Bears this summer
@jess_sims checks in with one of Berkeley’s newest Olympians on @CollegeGameDay
pic.twitter.com/S7SyaGQlku
— espnW (@espnW) October 5, 2024
Swimming has taken a few notable spotlights on the show this season. Michael Phelps was the ‘guest picker’ for the Bowman Bowl between Michigan and Texas earlier this season, and a sign referencing the suspension of the Notre Dame swim team took a prominent spot behind the broadcasters five weeks ago.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Olympic Swimmers Ryan Murphy, Abbey Weitzeil Get Airtime on ESPN’s College GameDay