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German Olympian and Record Holder Philip Heintz Retires

Philip Heintz, a three-time Olympian in swimming for Germany, is retiring.

After his International Swimming League team, the New York Breakers, finished third in the play-in match on Thursday, Heintz posted a photo on Instagram of his teammates wishing him a happy retirement.

Heintz owns the German record in both the long course and short course 200-meter individual medley, his signature event. He said the long course record at 1:55.76 in 2017 and the short course record at 1:51.92 in 2016.

The 30-year-old competed in the 200 IM at the 2012 Olympic Games, going 2:01.32 in prelims. Four years later in Rio, he finished sixth overall in the event, going 1:57.48. Heintz finished 13th in the event in Tokyo.

At the 2016 short course World Championships, Heintz won silver in the 200 IM.

He also has five short course European Championships medals, including two gold: Heintz won the 200 IM in 2013 and 2017, took silver in 2015 and bronze in 2019, and took silver in the 400 IM in 2017. At long course Euros, he picked up a silver medal in the 200 IM in both 2014 and 2018 and took bronze in the 4×100 medley relay as a prelims swimmer in 2018.

Heintz competed for the Aqua Centurions in seasons 1 and 2 of the ISL before joining the Breakers. He entered season 3 as the No. 3-ranked male 200 IMer in the league.

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Dutchy
3 years ago

Correction: Heintz is a 3-time Olympian, not 2-time. He competed in the 200 IM in Tokyo, finishing 13th in the semifinals.

Konner Scott
3 years ago

Legend. 1:55 is no joke- still only a handful of people who have ever gone that fast. Best wishes to him going forward.

Bruh
3 years ago

Best of luck in all of your future endeavors

MIKE IN DALLAS
3 years ago

ER WAR EIN HERVORRAGENDER SCHWIMMER UND, WENN DIE WAHRHEIT GESAGT WURDE, EIN UNGLAUBLICH NETTER HERR!

Anonymoose
Reply to  MIKE IN DALLAS
3 years ago

Diese Kommentarsektion steht nun unt- wait no im not even German why would I say that

Dan
3 years ago

Happy Retirement, remember seeing some fast swims at the Swim Open in Stockholm over the years

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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