Draft:Paul Hopfensperger

Paul Hopfensperger (born 1963) is an International #1 Amazon bestselling author and music artist, former British Open Water Swimmer, and former Independent Politician.

Early life
During his youth he was a competitive swimmer representing his home town of Bury St Edmunds and the County of Suffolk, including captaining the Bury St Edmunds Swimming Club ('The Bury Beavers') on three occasions between 1978 and 1981.

Swimming career
He has completed two solo crossings of The English Channel in 2007 and 2008 (the 84th person in history to do so) one relay (2010) as part of the six person 'Team Iryna International English Channel Relay Team'

His first swim in 2007 was relayed live from the English Channel by on board reporter Jon Wright for BBC Radio Suffolk. Updates were broadcast throughout the day for the duration of the 13 hour 52 minute swim. It also featured in the first episode of the Emmy nominated Discovery Channel documentary Human Body: Pushing the Limits.

In 2008 he competed at two FINA Open Water Grand Prix, becoming oldest known person to represented Great Britain at Open Water Swimming.

Political career
He unsuccessfully stood for election to St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 1999 and 2003 (losing by just 5 votes) before before being co-opted onto the newly formed Bury St Edmunds Town Council at it's second ever meeting in June 2003, and serving as Deputy Mayor from 2005-2006.

He was elected to the newly created Tower Division on Suffolk County Council in 2005 as a Conservative, serving as the Vice Chairman of the Roads and Transport Scrutiny Committee and Assistant to the Portfolio Holder for the London 2012 Olympic Games. However in February 2008 he quit the party over it's policy to abolish the county's middle schools. A month later he received a police caution under the Representation of the People Act during a by election for Bury St Edmunds Town Council for stating "It looks like Paul Farmer has done well" on his website after returning from the opening of the postal votes.

He unsuccessfully ran for re-election to Suffolk County Council in 2009 in Hardwick Division, before winning a seat on St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 2011 which he held until 2023, by which time St Edmundsbury had merged with Forest Heath to become West Suffolk District Council.

In the 2017 general election he nominated to run for Parliament in the Bury St Edmunds constituency but he withdrew before the election for personal reasons. He did run in 2019 finishing 4th (of 4 candidate) with 2.7% of the vote.

In 2021 he heavily criticized the post Brexit trading arrangements as a "complete and utter disaster". He would go on to say "If anyone tells me 'we knew what we were voting for' I say to them you certainly didn't know what you were voting for."

Elections contested
UK Parliament elections

 Suffolk County Council elections

Borough and District Council elections

Bury St. Edmunds Town Council elections

Personal life
His wife Rebecca is currently a West Suffolk District and Suffolk County Council councillor and the former Mayor of Bury St Edmunds (2005 - 2006).

In 2010 he appeared on the quiz show Eggheads where he captained a team of 6 English Channel swimmers called "Channel Buoys and Gulls" who had a combined total of 42 English Channel swims between them at the time of filming. The team included the King of The English Channel, Kevin Murphy who has swum the English Channel a record 34 times.

During the COVID pandemic, he co-authored a book with many renowned international speakers including Jim Rohn's 19 year business partner Kyle Wilson, Denis Waitley, and Zig Ziglar's son Tom Ziglar called “Bringing Value, Solving Problems and Leaving a Legacy” which became an International #1 Amazon Bestseller.

He also released a song entitled 'Just Keep Swimming Until You Get To France!' based on his experience of swimming the Channel, which also hit number one on the Amazon chart.