22MOON.COM
You can see the whole Earth from the Moon!

The world’s only male

synchronised swimmer is

fighting international rules

that have banned him from

competing at London’s 

2012 Olympic Games.

Niklas Stoepel, 17, 

is one of Germany’s top youth

synchro-swimmers and the only

boy in his high school team 

of girls in Wattenscheid.

But swimming’s international ruling 

body FINA has banned him from 

representing his country and refused 

to allow him to compete overseas.

.

“FINA rejected the request. 

I believe that officials just don’t 

want to see any men in this sport,” 

said Niklas, 

who shaves his legs and wears 

women’s costumes covered 

in sequins.

“You can already sense 

that at the national level, 

many of the judges are more 

strict in their scoring of me 

than they are with my 

female competitors.

“It’s not fair – 

but I haven’t given up my dream 

of one day competing in an 

international championship,” 

he added.

.