# Rolf Beab
**Rolf Beab** (born 1964 in Helmstedt, West Germany) is a German former competitive swimmer who specialized in breaststroke and was among the world's leading 100 m breaststrokers in the mid-1980s.[1](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302) Competing for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), he won silver in the 100 m breaststroke and gold in the 4 × 100 m medley relay at the 1985 European Championships in Sofia, and set European records in the 50 m breaststroke.[2](https://www.sport-record.info/schwimmsport/swimming-er.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1964, Helmstedt, West Germany[1](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302) |
| 1986 World Championships | 4th, 100 m breaststroke final, 1:03.59, Madrid[3](https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/issue/straitstimes19860819-1) |
| European records | 50 m breaststroke 28.67 (2 July 1985, Heidelberg) and 28.46 (25 June 1986, Hannover)[2](https://www.sport-record.info/schwimmsport/swimming-er.pdf) |
| German titles | 100 m breaststroke 1985; 50 m breaststroke 1986, 1987, and 1988[4](https://www.sport-komplett.de/sport-komplett/sportarten/s/schwimmen/hst/137.html) |
| Later career | IT entrepreneur; managing director of Lane4 Digital since August 2018[5](https://www.xing.com/profile/Rolf_Beab) |
## Junior career
In 1978, at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Florence, he won the 100 m breaststroke and set a youth European record over that distance. The club's centenary chronicle records that he "swam records in rapid succession" that year, was voted Junior Sportsman of the Year, and received a training grant from the German Sport Aid Foundation.[6](https://www.hsv1913.de/wp-download/festschrift-100-jahre-hsv.pdf)
## International career, 1984 to 1987
**Sofia 1985.** The medal ceremony drew wider attention than the race itself: Beab carried his one-year-old son Denis onto the podium, and told the press that "our whole family life is oriented around my swimming, and I am at my best when my wife Susanne and my son Denis are close to me."[1](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302) The same year he won the 100 m breaststroke at the Swim Europe Cup in 's-Hertogenbosch.[7](https://intersportstats.com/athletes/6420)
**Madrid 1986.** At the 1986 World Aquatics Championships Beab reached the 100 m breaststroke final and finished fourth in 1:03.59, one place behind the Soviet Union's Dmitry Volkov. The race was reshaped by a disqualification: Moorhouse touched first but was ruled out minutes later over a faulty touch, giving the title to Canada's Victor Davis in 1:02.71, with Beab's compatriot Bert Goebel fifth in 1:03.62.[3](https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/issue/straitstimes19860819-1) A World Aquatics retrospective notes that Beab's and Goebel's fourth and fifth places were the best German result in the 100 m breaststroke at a World Championships since [Walter Kusch](https://www.edgepedia.org/walter-kusch)'s 1978 title, and remained so through at least 2023.[8](https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2023/10/03/65996cce-26b8-47a0-a5c8-468f9c96066d/2023_World-Aquatics_SWC_Official-Prog_A4-3.pdf) • [12](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/47859)
**Strasbourg 1987.** At the 1987 European Championships in Strasbourg, Beab placed eleventh in the 100 m breaststroke, a result the Munzinger biography describes as a marked step down from Sofia two years earlier.[1](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302) • [7](https://intersportstats.com/athletes/6420)
## Records
Beab twice held the long course European record in the 50 m breaststroke. He took it from Moorhouse with 28.67 seconds in [Heidelberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/heidelberg) on 2 July 1985, lost it to Volkov in February 1986, and regained it with 28.46 seconds in Hannover on 25 June 1986, before Volkov lowered it again in 1987.[2](https://www.sport-record.info/schwimmsport/swimming-er.pdf) In February 1986, at the West German championships in Aachen, he swam 1:00.30 in the 100 m breaststroke, improving the world best time of 1:00.58 that had belonged to Moorhouse.[9](https://elpais.com/diario/1986/02/02/deportes/507682807_850215.html)
In short course (25 m) competition he set a European record of 27.57 seconds in the 50 m breaststroke in Bonn on 7 February 1986, and on 6 February 1987 he swam the breaststroke leg for a West German 4 × 100 m medley relay, with Bernd Hoffmeister, Michael Groß, and Andre Schadt, that set a European record of 3:37.96 in Bonn.[2](https://www.sport-record.info/schwimmsport/swimming-er.pdf) He also won the 100 m breaststroke at the [Mare Nostrum](https://www.edgepedia.org/mare-nostrum) meeting in Monaco in 1989, in a meeting-record 1:04.73.[10](https://marenostrumswimtour.com/assets/MNST_HISTORICAL_Winners%26Records-MONACO.pdf)
## German titles
Beab won four national titles. He was German champion in the 100 m breaststroke in 1985, and in the 50 m breaststroke in 1986, 1987, and 1988, with Bert Goebel and later Ralf Eggers and Alexander Mayer among the runners-up; in 1986 and 1987 he was also runner-up in the 100 m breaststroke.[4](https://www.sport-komplett.de/sport-komplett/sportarten/s/schwimmen/hst/137.html) The Munzinger biography lists his 50 m titles as 1986 and 1987 only.[1](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302) From 1989 the national 50 m title passed to Ralf Eggers, and [Mark Warnecke](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-warnecke) took over the event at the start of the 1990s.[4](https://www.sport-komplett.de/sport-komplett/sportarten/s/schwimmen/hst/137.html)
## Later life
After his swimming career Beab went into software. He has written that he spent three decades building software for German mid-market companies, and he is a managing director of Lane4 Digital in Essen, a web development company he has led since August 2018, having previously run the firm Joinpool from 2006 to 2018.[5](https://www.xing.com/profile/Rolf_Beab) • [11](https://de.linkedin.com/in/rolf-beab)
## References
1. [Rolf Beab, Munzinger Biographie](https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Rolf%2BBeab/01/2302)
2. [Swimming – Progression of European records (50 m and 25 m), sport-record.info](https://www.sport-record.info/schwimmsport/swimming-er.pdf)
3. [The Straits Times, 19 August 1986, NewspaperSG, National Library Board Singapore](https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/issue/straitstimes19860819-1)
4. [Schwimmen – Deutsche Meisterschaften (Herren), sport-komplett.de](https://www.sport-komplett.de/sport-komplett/sportarten/s/schwimmen/hst/137.html)
5. [Rolf Beab, XING profile](https://www.xing.com/profile/Rolf_Beab)
6. [Festschrift 100 Jahre HSV 1913, Helmstedter SV](https://www.hsv1913.de/wp-download/festschrift-100-jahre-hsv.pdf)
7. [Rolf Beab, InterSportStats](https://intersportstats.com/athletes/6420)
8. [World Aquatics Swimming World Cup official program, 2023](https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2023/10/03/65996cce-26b8-47a0-a5c8-468f9c96066d/2023_World-Aquatics_SWC_Official-Prog_A4-3.pdf)
9. [Natación, El País, 2 February 1986](https://elpais.com/diario/1986/02/02/deportes/507682807_850215.html)
10. [Mare Nostrum Swim Tour, Monaco historical winners and records](https://marenostrumswimtour.com/assets/MNST_HISTORICAL_Winners%26Records-MONACO.pdf)
11. [Rolf Beab, LinkedIn](https://de.linkedin.com/in/rolf-beab)
12. [olympedia.org](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/47859)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Water sports › Swimmers (biographies and medalists) › Breaststroke swimmers › German breaststroke swimmers*
*Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license