In 1896, Paul Neumann won a gold medal in the 500-Meter Freestyle (8:12.6) at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. He was the first of only two Austrians to win a medal at the Athens Games.

Neumann first gained swimming notoriety in 1892, when he won Austria’s National River Swimming Championship.

Following the Athens Olympiad, Neumann emigrated to the United States as a University of Chicago medical student. Competing for the Chicago Athletic Association in 1897, he set World records in the Two-, Three-, Four-, and Five-Mile swimming events. That same year, he also won both the American and Canadian National Freestyle Swimming Championships.