Paul William Hait (born May 25, 1940) is an American former competition swimmer and breaststroke specialist who swam for Stanford University and is a 1960 Rome Olympic champion and former world record-holder.

[2][3][4] Hait was born in Passadena, California on May 25, 1940, though he would grow up North in the San Jose area where he attended James Lick High School, graduating in 1958.

[5] He swam for the highly competitive Santa Clara Swim Club by 1960, then under Hall of Fame Coach George Haines.

[10] After training and travelling with the American team, he won a gold medal in the 4×100 m medley relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he swam in the preliminary heats (with Steve Clark, Bob Bennett and Dave Gillanders).

[10] As a Freshman at Stanford around 1958, Hait injured his back after slipping during a locker room towel fight, and later had surgery that required ten months of recovery time.

[4][3] As a Senior at Stanford on July 23, 1961 at the Los Angeles Invitational, while representing the Santa Clara Swim Club, he won the men's 100-meter breaststroke in a time of 1:12.2, only seven-tenths of a second off the world record.

[12] At the August 19, 1961 Men's AAU Outdoor National Swimming Championships in Los Angeles, Hait very briefly broke the world record for the 200-meter breaststroke placing second in the event with a time of 2:34.5, though Chet Jastremski, who took first in the event eclipsed Hait's record with a time of 2:29.6.

[18] Retiring as Chairman in 2013, after 2006[4] he was a founder of US Organic Marketing, a company that later became US Rare Earth Minerals, Inc.[4] After 2014, he worked as a design consultant for a variety of products.

[5] Among the art he painted was a series known as birds of the Isabel which included a Quail, a Black Capped Chicadee, a Canadian Goose and a Magpie, which were later sold on canvas as surfaces for needlepoint.