Getting Harder and Harder

On October 14th, Swimming World Magazine featured Germany’s Christian Hein in the Getting to Know Series on European swimmers written by Stefan Lackner.

Christian Hein has placed second in the 5K and 10K swims at the 2003 World Swimming Championships as well as placed tenth in the 400-meter freestyle and 12th in the 1500-meter freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Hein has been an excellent cross-over athlete who also got a fifth in the 10K in the same year he competed in the Athens Olympics in the pool. In 2005, he was a finalist in the 1500-meter freestyle at the World Swimming Championships and then followed up with a fifth place in the 10K at the 2007 and 2008 World Championships.

One of the interesting questions that Hein was asked was, "What is the hardest race you’ve ever swum?"

Hein answered, "All 10K open water races are hard, and getting harder and harder because of the rising number of participants. There are about 50 people in some of the races."

Photo from the Christian Hein official website.