Eithan Urbach

Israeli swimmer

Eithan Urbach (born 12 January 1977 in Haifa) is a former backstroke swimmer from Israel who swam for Auburn University. Swimming for Israel, Urbach competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Urbach's 4x100 Israeli medley relay team, with Urbach swimming the backstroke leg, set an Israeli National Record in a preliminary heat, becoming the first Israeli swimming team to make the finals of this Olympic event. In 1997, Urbach shared Israel's Sportsman of the Year award.

At the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Swimming Championships on February 22, 1997, Urbach placed 5th in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:45:74. Auburn won the SEC Championships that year, and began a long streak of successive SEC championships through the 2011 2012 season.

At the March, 1997 NCAA Swimming Championships at the Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota, Urbach placed eighth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:45:76. Urbach's time was only around 4.66 seconds behind American Lenny Krayzelburg's first place time in the NCAA event that year. The Auburn men's team won the NCAA Swimming Championships that year, and finished the 1997 regular season by March undefeated.

Urbach swam in two events in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. On July 23, 1996, swimming for Israel, Urbach competed in his signature event, the 100 m backstroke, placing 22nd. Though his finish was not near medal contention, at only 19 Ethan notably set an Israeli record of 56.74, three seconds behind the world record held by America's Jeff Rouse at 53.66. The win gave Urbach national prominence in the stroke.

In their eighth place 4x100 medley relay at the 1996 Olympics, Urbach swam backstroke for the Israeli team, which finished with a time in the finals of 3:42:90. Yoav Bruck, another Auburn swimmer and a highly accomplished Israeli freestyler swam the final freestyle leg. In one of his most significant accomplishments as a swimmer, Urbach helped the Israeli team set a national record in the medley relay preliminaries, which was slightly faster than their final's time, and Urbach's 1996 Israeli Olympic swim team became the first to reach a swimming final. An enthusiastic American crowd and large global television audience watched the finish.

Swimming for Israel in the 2000 Olympics at the Sydney International Aquatic Center, he competed in the 4x100m freestyle relay, placing 14th with a team time of 3:22.06.

In the FINA Swimming World Cup in November 1996, in Germany, he received a Bronze medal in the 200m backstroke with a time of 1:57:52. Finishing just out of medal contention, in the European Championships in Helsinki in July 2000, he placed fourth in the 100m backstroke finals with a time of 55.94.