Paul Biedermann (; born 7 August 1986) is a German retired competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

, a 200 and 400 metre freestyle

long course An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Champion ...

world champion. He holds the long course

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

in the 200 meters freestyle, and formerly held world records in the long course 400 meters and the short course world records in the 200 and 400 meters freestyle.

Career

In 2008, Biedermann was ranked 9th in the world in the 200 m freestyle and 21st in the world in the 400 m freestyle. He won the 200 m freestyle long course at the

2008 European Aquatics Championships The 2008 LEN European Aquatics Championships were held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, from 13–24 March 2008. They were the European championships for swimming (50 m), diving and synchronised swimming for 2008. Two new events were contested: ...

final, finishing in a time of 1:46.59. His times for the 400 m freestyle (3:47.69) and 200 m freestyle (NR in 1:46.37) qualified him for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. At the Olympics, he placed fifth in the 200 m freestyle final (1:46.00) and 17th overall in the 400 m freestyle (3:48.03).

2009 Long Course and 2010 Short Course World Championships

On 26 July 2009, Biedermann won the 400 m freestyle final at the

2009 World Aquatics Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships () or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. This was the second time the championships were held in the city after being previously hosted in 1994 World Aq ...

. He passed 1500 m Olympic champion

Oussama Mellouli Oussama "Ous" Mellouli (; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the Univer ...

in the final 50 metres and finished with a time of 3:40.07, shaving nearly three seconds off his own personal best and bettering

Ian Thorpe Ian James Thorpe (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle swimming, freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the medley swimming, individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the se ...

's 2002 world record by one-hundredth of a second. On 28 July, he claimed his second gold of the meet in the 200 m freestyle, defeating

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...

in a world record time of 1:42.00 and cutting more than four seconds off of his time since the year before. Many criticise the authenticity of Biedermann's world records in the 200m and 400m freestyle, as they were swum with the now banned "super-suits," such as the

LZR Racer The LZR Racer (pronounced as "Laser Racer") is a line of competition swimsuits manufactured by Speedo using a high-technology swimwear fabric composed of woven elastane-nylon and polyurethane. The swimsuits are available in a full-body leng ...

, that were proven to give an advantage particularly over the longer distance freestyle races. In the 2010 Short Course Worlds, Biedermann won gold in the 400 m freestyle, beating Oussama Mellouli again in a race that unfolded almost identically to their race in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

the previous year. In the 200 m freestyle, although he was the world record holder, he only placed 5th. He was over a second behind the first-place finisher

Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American former competition swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. He is the third-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by total number of medals, behind only Michael Phelps and Kat ...

2011 Long Course World Championships

Biedermann collected bronze medals in the 200 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, and 4 × 100 m medley relay, as well as finishing 4th in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was out-touched by Michael Phelps by 0.09 seconds in the individual 200 m freestyle. However, Biedermann got the better of Phelps in the relay lead-off leg by beating him by 0.33 seconds.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he competed in the 200 m freestyle, finishing 5th (0.6 seconds from a medal); the 400 m freestyle; and the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay as a member of the German team that finished 4th.

2016 Summer Olympics

At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, he competed in the 200 m freestyle where he finished in 6th place. He also competed as part of the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay team which finished in 6th place. Following the games, he announced his retirement from competitive swimming.

Personal bests

Long course (50 m pool)

Short course (25 m pool)

World records

Long course (50 m pool)

Short course (25 m pool)

References

External links

* * * * * *
Profile at i-swimmer.ru
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Biedermann, Paul 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Halle (Saale) Swimmers from Saxony-Anhalt Sportspeople from Bezirk Halle German male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Germany Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World record holders in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming 21st-century German sportsmen

Career

2009 Long Course and 2010 Short Course World Championships

2011 Long Course World Championships

2012 Summer Olympics

2016 Summer Olympics

Personal bests

Long course (50 m pool)

Short course (25 m pool)

World records

Long course (50 m pool)

Short course (25 m pool)

See also

References

External links