Thomas Rupprath is an Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 swimmer from Germany, who is nicknamed "The New Albatross". A specialist in the backstroke

Backstroke

The backstroke, also sometimes called the back crawl, is one of the four swimming styles regulated by FINA, and the only regulated style swum on the back. This has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of swimmers not being able to see where they are going. It is also the only...

 and butterfly, especially in short course, he held the world record for the 50 m backstroke (short course

Short course

In Swimming, the term Short Course is used to identify a pool that is 25 metres in length. The term is also often included in meet names when conducted in a short course pool...

) with a time of 23.27 seconds set on 31 November 2002. This was broken by Robert Hurley

Robert Hurley (swimmer)

Robert Hurley is an Australian swimmer and former world record holder in the short-course 50 metres backstroke...

 of Australia on 26 October 2008. He also held the 50 m backstroke (long course) record between 7 July 2003 to 2 April 2008 with a time of 24.80 s.

With a time of 54.16 over 100 m backstroke (second behind Helge Meeuw) Thomas Rupprath managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing. He also won the 100 m butterfly at the German trials.

External links

• Swim Rankings profile