By Gerd Schneider, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.01.2005, Nr. 19
All rights reserved. (c) F.A.Z. GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

BERLIN. A sensation took place in Austria at the weekend: A swimmer was featured on the cover page of the "Kronen Zeitung" on Sunday. A swimmer? In winter? And this on the sacred Kitzbühel skiing weekend? "Unheard of", says a sports reporter from the mass circulation newspaper and, at the swimming world championship in Berlin, proudly presents the pre-produced cover page of the Sunday edition: "This has never happened before."

Respect is due: Rogan. Markus Antonius Rogan. The dark-haired guy with the soft brown eyes and designer stubble is considered to be the best swimmer that the Austrians have ever had. He became European champion in the previous year, and he won two silver medals at the Olympic Games in Athens in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke. What ultimately turned the 22-year-old Viennese into the nation's darling was the story that unfolded in Athens after the 200 metre race. A few minutes after the competition, the superior winner, the American Aaron Peirsol, was disqualified on account of a technical error. Suddenly, Markus Rogan was the Olympic champion. The Austrian sports reporters - easily excitable at the best of times - were close to collapse, and at home the otherwise untouchable main news programme at 7.30 p.m. fell through: The Rogan case electrified the entire nation. The collective delirium lasted for exactly 24 minutes. The disqualified Peirsol was then reinstated - incorrectly, as many in the swimming scene believe today. However, already prior to this decision, Rogan had declared in front of running cameras that he didn't want the gold medal: "It's not rightfully mine. Peirsol is the best, he earned it."

These words were worth their weight in gold for Markus Rogan. They turned him, the one who came second, into the real winner: into the Olympic champion of the hearts. At the end of the year, it was he, and not the skiing icon Hermann Maier, who was elected as Sportsman of the Year in his home country. It had to happen that the 1.90 metre tall Rogan was promptly made into the "Hermann Maier of swimming". At the same time, this is nonsense. As far as his successes are concerned, worlds still separate Markus Rogan from the skiing idol. And compared to Hermann Maier, a rugged mountain guy, the swimmer appears rather as the very opposite: a kind of anti-Maier. Markus Rogan is smart, quick-witted, original and urbane.