He attended Cope Junior High School and later swam for both Redlands Senior High School and the Redlands Aquatics Association in Redlands, California.[1][2] In 1973, in his Senior year in High School, he moved to Northern California from the Redlands near Los Angeles and swam with and graduated from San Rafael High School near San Francisco while also swimming with the Marin Aquatic Club under Don Swartz.[3][4]
Swimming for Redlands Swimming Association as a Junior Swimmer at the Pacific Southwest YMCA Swimming and Diving Championships in the summer of 1970, he set an age group record of 57.1 for the 100-yard butterfly, and a 23.2 in the 50-yard freestyle, fractions of a second off the former age group record.[5] In a Marin County Athletic League Meet, swimming as a Senior for San Rafael High School in March 1973, he won the 100 free in 50.9 and the 200 Individual Medley in 2:08.4.[6]
After High School, he swam for the University of Washington. He transferred to the University of Alabama, where he completed his undergraduate studies and swam for the Crimson Tide Swim Team under Hall of Fame coach Don Gambril who would serve as a U.S. Swim team coach at the 1972 Summer Olympics attended by Backhaus.[7][1]
In U.S. National competition, Backhaus won three AAU titles, in the 200 yd butterfly indoors in 1973–74, and in the 100 m butterfly in 1973. He also won NCAA titles in the 200 butterfly in 1974–75. He was an AAU All American in 1973 in both the 100-yard and 100-meter butterfly.[8]
Backhaus represented the United States as a 17-year-old at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.[9] In the first swimming final of the Olympic competition, Backhaus won a bronze medal for his third-place performance in the men's 200-meter butterfly, finishing with a time of 2:03.23 behind Mark Spitz and Gary Hall, and completing an American sweep of the event.[7] Beginning his seven medal sweep, Spitz finished a full 1.6 seconds ahead of silver medalist Gary Hall, and Backhaus was about .6 seconds behind Hall in a close race.[10]
After retiring from competition, Backhaus worked as a teacher and coach at Konawaena High SchoolinHawaii for four years, and then trained swimmers in Texas and California for over 20 years.[9][11][1]
Bill Forrester (USA)
Michael Gross (FRG)
Denis Pankratov (RUS)
Denys Sylantyev (UKR)
Paweł Korzeniowski (POL)
Chad le Clos (RSA)
László Cseh (HUN)
Léon Marchand (FRA)
Tomoru Honda (JPN)
