Markus Rogan

Markus Antonius Rogan (born 4 May 1982 in Vienna) is a retired Austrian swimmer, who won two silver medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and a gold medal for 200 m backstroke at the 2008 World Short Course Championships in Manchester. He also was the world record holder in 200 metres backstroke (short course) in that year. Rogan's first big international success was a second-place finish in the 200 m backstroke at the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. In the Olympics in 2004, Rogan placed second in both men's 100 m backstroke and the men's 200 m backstroke, both times behind Aaron Peirsol of the United States. The 200 metre race was controversial as Peirsol was first disqualified but later reinstated as gold medalist. Rogan told Peirsol on television that the result was unfair and that Peirsol should protest. As a teenager, the 6 ft 5 in tall Rogan swam for Mount Vernon High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he trained with the Curl-Burke Swim Club. In July 2000, he cut short his final season of the Northern Virginia Swim League, swimming for the Mansion House Piranhas (of Mount Vernon). He flew to Australia and competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, failing to advance beyond the heats in the backstroke. He earned a scholarship to attend Stanford University from 2000 to 2004. On 8 December 2005, in Trieste, Rogan set a new world record in the 200 m backstroke for short course swim pools, with 1:50.43. This world record was later broken by American swimmer Ryan Lochte. Back on the short course in Short Course World Championships in Manchester, Rogan broke the world record again on 13 April 2008, in a time of 1:47.84, with Lochte finishing second by seven one-hundredths of a second (also...