Olympic Swimmer; Born April 28, 1961, Died May 23, 2009.

Paul Marshall, who has died aged 48, is to this day the only black swimmer to represent Britain in the Olympics.

Marshall was born in Ghana but adopted as a baby by a Scots couple and brought up in Dundee. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, the then teenager competed in the 100m backstroke and helped the UK relay team reach the final of the 4x100m race. Marshall swam in the first round but was replaced in the final. His team-mates Duncan Goodhew, Gary Abraham, David Lowe and Martin Smith went on to take the medal for third place behind Australia and the then USSR.

Marshall was an extraordinarily competitive sportsman. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 yet only last year he was still trying to break world records, on that occasion as part of an attempt to achieve the greatest number of golfers playing the same medal in a single day. Among other record attempts in which he was involved were the most consecutive rugby passes, the longest continuous 100-metre relay race and the largest human flag.

He always credited his adoptive parents, Philip and Ida Marshall, as the force behind his swimming success, as they had urged him to develop his talent in the pool. He grew up in the Caird Park area of Dundee and attended Harris Academy. It was at this time that he first began to take swimming seriously as a member of Dundee's successful NCR Club.

By the time he was 17, he had competed under the Saltire banner at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada, breaking a Scottish 100m backstroke record which he had himself set previously. Two years later he was in Moscow competing for Britain in the Olympics. Though he did not make the final, his efforts as a team member in the earlier stages secured him a bronze medal.

After the Olympics, he was a success too. He first became a DJ with his home city's commercial radio station, Radio Tay. However, he remained there for just a year before joining the RAF. Based mostly at Leuchars, he spent more than 20 years serving his country, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader.

After leaving, he became a management consultant and later went on to form his own consultancy.

Though he had been suffering from cancer for some time, he is understood to have taken seriously ill about two months ago and was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee from his home in Cupar. He battled courageously to survive until the birth of his first child with his wife Gina, expected in August. But it was not to be. He died on Saturday at the Adamson Hospital in Cupar.

He is survived by Gina and by two sons from a previous relationship.