Disclaimer: Dolfin Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Dolfin Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
This week in history, we look back at the 2008 Short Course World Championships and a historic swim for Austria.
Heading into the Worlds final, the 200 back world record stood at 1:49.05. That time was set by Ryan Lochte at the previous Short Course Worlds in 2006, and at the time made Lochte the first man ever under 1:50 in the event.
Lochte was in the field again for the 2008 final, but it was Austria’s Markus Rogan who torched the field, beating Lochte by seven hundredths of a second and smashing the world record. Where Lochte’s 2006 swim was the first ever under 1:50, Rogan’s was the first ever under 1:49 and 1:48. He was 1:47.84 to Lochte’s 1:47.91.
That was Austria’s first and only gold medal in swimming at the World Championships – short course or long course. Rogan finished his career with two Olympic silver medals and four long course European Championships golds. But that 2008 backstroke swim was his only world-level gold medal. Four years later, he would serve as Austria’s official flag-bearer at the 2012 Olympics.
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