Markus Rogan

Markus Antonius Rogan (born 4 May 1982 in Vienna) is an 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 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.

As a teenager, the 6 ft 5 in tall Rogan swam for Mount Vernon High School (Alexandria, Virginia) 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), and flew to Australia where he competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, failing to advance beyond the heats in the backstroke. He earned a scholarship to attend Stanford University from 2000-2004. On 8 December 2005, in Trieste, Markus set a new world record in the 200 m backstroke for short course swim pools, with 1:50.43. This world record was then broken by American swimmer Ryan Lochte, who lowered the standard to 1:49.05 at the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championships in Shanghai, China. Back on the short course in Manchester 2008, Rogan broke the world record again on 13 April 2008, setting the new record with 1:47.84, with Lochte finishing second by seven one-hundredths of a second (also under the old world record). Both swimmers were wearing the new Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.

In an interview with BBC Sport at the 2008 European Championships in Eindoven, The Netherlands, in March 2008, Markus told reporters that he was planning to retire from competitive swimming after the Beijing Olympics in August. Markus won both the 100 and 200 metre backstroke events (long course) at those European Championships.

In the meantime Rogan changed his plans on retirement. He swam at the World Championships 2009 in Rome. As he is training in Italy, the event is virtually on homeground and he wants to enjoy the home event with his Italian training partners.

At the 2010 European championships he grabbed silver in the 200 m IM behind Olympic Silver medalist László Cseh.

Ironically he hates swimming. He says "I really don't like swimming, it's terrible." He also says that training is boring and that he cannot wait to get out of the pool.

Markus is dating a South African Israeli, Ms Leanne Farryn Cobb, director of marketing at American Realty Advisors.