Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall is an American former competition swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, she became the first woman ever to swim the 100-meter backstroke in less than one minute. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she became the first U.S. female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympiad, and the first woman ever to win a 100-meter backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she earned a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
László Cseh is a retired Hungarian competitive swimmer and six-time Olympic medalist. He is a 33-time European Champion. His father, László Cseh Sr., also represented Hungary at the Olympics in swimming. In 2020, Braden Keith of SwimSwam nominated him as number 1 within top 10 male swimmers who have never won Olympic gold.
Antje Buschschulte is a German former swimmer. Her best disciplines were the short distance backstroke and freestyle races. Buschschulte swam for the sporting club SC Magdeburg. She participated in Olympic Games 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and won 5 Olympic bronze medals. She was World Champion in 100m backstroke 2003 in Barcelona. In total Antje won 57 international medals. She is the only German swimmer who participated for 14 consecutive Olympiads (1995–2008) in every major longcourse championship.
Thomas Rupprath is an Olympic swimmer from Germany, who is nicknamed "The New Albatross".
Roxana Maracineanu is a Romanian-French politician, former swimming champion and television consultant who served as Minister Delegate in charge of Sports in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex (2020–2022) and as Minister of Sports under Édouard Philippe (2018–2022).
Ryosuke Irie is a retired Japanese competitive swimmer who competes in backstroke events. He is a Kindai University student in Osaka.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo is a retired Dutch swimmer of mixed Dutch-Javanese Surinamese origin who mainly specialises in sprint freestyle events. She is a triple Olympic champion, winning the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics, and in the 50 m freestyle and 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics. Kromowidjojo holds the world record in the 50 meter freestyle short course, and as part of the Dutch team she holds the world record in the 4×50 m freestyle relay. She formerly held world records in the 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m freestyle relays. She has won a total of 39 medals in FINA World Championship events.
Nicolaas "Nick" Driebergen is a former Dutch Swimmer who is specialized in backstroke. He currently holds national long course records in all backstroke events and in the 4×100 medley relay. At short course he holds the national record in 50 and 100 m backstroke and in the 4×50 medley relay. He was the first swimmer in his country to swim the 100 m backstroke under 55 seconds and 200 m backstroke under 2 minutes at the long course.
Katinka Hosszú is a Hungarian competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is the owner of a Budapest-based swim school and swim club called Iron Swim Budapest, and a co-owner and captain of Team Iron, founding member of the International Swimming League.
Aschwin Wildeboer Faber, known as Aschwin Wildeboer, is a Spanish Olympic backstroke swimmer of Dutch origin.
Guy Marcos Barnea is an Israeli swimmer who represented Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has won three medals at the European Championships. As of March 2016, he held the Israeli records in the long course 50m backstroke (24.64), the short course 50m backstroke (23.27), and the long course 100m butterfly (51.36).
Judith "Jutta" Weber is a German former swimmer who competed in the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, and won bronze medals in the 4 × 100 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m medley relay events in 1972. She repeated this achievement next year at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships. In 1974, she won a European silver medal in the 4 × 100 m medley.
Folkert Meeuw is a German former swimmer who competed at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, and won a silver medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay in 1972. Next year he won a bronze in the same event at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships. In 1970 and 1974 he won six European medals in various events, including three gold medals.
Simona Kubová is a Czech swimmer most successfully competing in backstroke events. Kubová is the first Czech female to swim 100 metre backstroke in long course swimming pool under one minute.
Dorothea Brandt is a German swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle and breaststroke events. She is a multiple-time German champion, a fourteen-time medalist at the European Short Course Swimming Championships, and a semi-finalist in the 50 m freestyle at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Brandt currently holds the short-course German record time of 23.74 seconds in the same discipline.
Karen Barbara Lee is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships. She specialized in backstroke events. She finished sixth in the 200-metre backstroke (2.10.27) at the 2002 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Riesa, Germany. She was also a member of Team GB starting in 1998, and a varsity swimmer for the Loughborough University team, under head coach Ben Titley.
Apostolos Christou is a Greek swimmer specializing in backstroke. He is the Greek National Record holder in the 100 metre freestyle and 50, 100, and 200 metre backstroke events, as well as contributing to national record efforts in the 4x100 metre freestyle and medley relays. He is a three-time Olympian, qualifying in 2016, 2021, and most recently 2024, where he became Greece's first Olympic medalist in swimming since the inaugural 1896 Games through his 2nd place finish in the 200 metre backstroke.
Evgeny Mikhailovich Rylov is a Russian competitive swimmer and Olympic champion specializing in backstroke events. He won three gold medals at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and a bronze medal at his senior international debut at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan. He also won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a gold medal at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, both were in the 200 metre backstroke event. In 2018, at the 2018 World Short Course Championships, he won gold medals in the 200 metre backstroke and 50 metre backstroke. At the 2019 World Championships, he won a gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke, silver medal in the 100 metre backstroke, and silver medal in the 50 metre backstroke. He won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke and 200 metre backstroke at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Simone Sabbioni is an Italian competitive swimmer and two-time Olympian who competed at the 2016 Olympics and the 2020 Olympics. He is a former Italian record holder in the short course 50 metre backstroke, 100 metre backstroke, 200 metre backstroke, 4×50 metre medley relay and the long course 100 metre backstroke.
Anastasia "Nastiya" Gorbenko is an Israeli competitive swimmer. She competes in the backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and medley. She has won 8 World and European championships gold medals, competed at 2 Olympic finals, broken most of the Israeli national records for women and mixed relays, and is considered to be Israel's greatest swimmer of all time. In February 2024, Gorbenko won a silver medal at the Doha World Championships in the women's 400 meters individual medley. Gorbenko represented Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics in swimming in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 4x200m freestyle relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay.
