Robin James Backhaus (born February 12, 1955) is an American former competition

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 ...

, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder.

High School swimming

He attended Cope Junior High School and later swam for both Redlands Senior High School and the Redlands Aquatics Association in Redlands, California. In 1973, in his Senior year in High School, he moved to Northern California from the Redlands near Los Angeles and swam with and graduated from San Rafael High School near San Francisco while also swimming with the Marin Aquatic Club under Don Swartz. Swimming for Redlands Swimming Association as a Junior Swimmer at the Pacific Southwest YMCA Swimming and Diving Championships in the summer of 1970, he set an age group record of 57.1 for the 100-yard butterfly, and a 23.2 in the 50-yard freestyle, fractions of a second off the former age group record. In a Marin County Athletic League Meet, swimming as a Senior for San Rafael High School in March 1973, he won the 100 free in 50.9 and the 200 Individual Medley in 2:08.4.

Collegiate swimming

After High School, he swam for the University of Washington where he briefly swam for ASCAA Hall of Fame Coach Earl Ellis, who had a long coaching career with the Huskies. Backhaus transferred to the University of Alabama, where he completed his undergraduate studies and swam for the Crimson Tide Swim Team under Hall of Fame coach

Don Gambril Donald Lee Gambril (born January 2, 1934) is an American former Hall of Fame swimming (sport), swimming coach (sport), coach who is best known for coaching the University of Alabama from 1973 to 1990. His Alabama teams had top ten NCAA finishes ...

who would serve as a U.S. Swim team coach at the 1972 Summer Olympics attended by Backhaus. In U.S. National competition, Backhaus won three AAU titles, in the 200 yd butterfly indoors in 1973–74, and in the 100 m butterfly in 1973. He also won NCAA titles in the 200 butterfly in 1974–75. He was an AAU All American in 1973 in both the 100-yard and 100-meter butterfly."All America Swimmers Announced", ''The Independent-Record'', Helena, Montana, 10 October 1973, pg. 8

1972 Munich Olympics

Backhaus represented the United States as a 17-year-old at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

in Munich, Germany.Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes
Robin Backhaus
Retrieved October 22, 2012. In the first swimming final of the Olympic competition, Backhaus won a bronze medal for his third-place performance in the men's 200-meter butterfly, finishing with a time of 2:03.23 behind

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...

and Gary Hall, and completing an American sweep of the event.Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1972 München Summer Games
Men's 200 metres Butterfly Final
Retrieved October 22, 2012. Beginning his seven medal sweep, Spitz finished a full 1.6 seconds ahead of silver medalist Gary Hall, and Backhaus was about .6 seconds behind Hall in a close race.

1973 World Aquatics Championships

At the

1973 World Aquatics Championships The 1st FINA World Championships in Aquatics were held in the Tašmajdan SRC in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, from 31 August to 9 September 1973. Medal table Results Diving ;Men ;Women Swimming ;Men ;Women Synchronised s ...

in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, he won gold medals for his first-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly, and as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He also received a bronze medal for finishing third in the 100-meter butterfly. After retiring from competition, Backhaus worked as a teacher and coach at

Konawaena High School Konawaena High School is a public school located in Kona District, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. Konawaena means "the center of the leeward side" in the Hawaiian Language. The school has a Kealakekua, Hawaii, Kealakekua mailing address, ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for four years, and then trained swimmers in Texas and California for over 20 years.Robin Backhaus
Hawaii Swim site

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backhaus, Robin 1955 births Living people Alabama Crimson Tide men's swimmers American male butterfly swimmers American male freestyle swimmers Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming Sportspeople from Lincoln, Nebraska Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics 20th-century American sportsmen

High School swimming

Collegiate swimming

1972 Munich Olympics

1973 World Aquatics Championships

See also

References