User:Tootall79/Nicholas Thoman

Nicholas ("Nick") Thoman is a successful international swimmer, specializing in the backstroke. In the summer of 2007, he won bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 meter backstroke at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand (see: Swimming at the 2007 Summer Universiade). Thoman missed making the US Olympic Team in 2008, but nearly set a world record in the 100 meter backstroke just days before the Beijing Olympics. His time of 52.92 at the 2008 US Open in Minneapolis was just 3/100 of a second of off the world record in the event. You can find more information concerning Thoman's career statistics at http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/DesktopModules/BioViewManaged.aspx?personid=8f4b8d8f-3c11-48db-aa69-544d12761670&TabId=388&Mid=597.

Born in 1986, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Henry N. Thoman and Kathleen Brewer Thoman, Thoman spent most of his youth in suburban Cincinnati. From early 1994 until the fall of 1995 he lived with his family on a banana plantation on the Pacific side of Panama in Puerto Armuelles, where his father worked for Chiquita. After living in Panama, he returned to suburban Cincinnati. Thoman attended Mariemont High School where he was an eight time high school All American. He then attended the University of Arizona for two years. At Arizona, he was a five time NCAA All American and swam the backstroke leg of Arizona's NCAA national championship 400 yard medley relay in 2006.

Thoman's grandfather, Richard B. Thoman, was also a world class backstroker. Richard Thoman swam for Bob Kiphuth at Yale from 1949 through 1953. He set a world record in the 100 yard backstroke in the spring of 1952 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Thoman has a sister, Victoria, a half-sister, Aida, and a half-brother, Zamir. Aida and Zamir were adopted from Uralsk, Kazakhstan, by Thoman's father and stepmother in 2006.