At the Summer Olympics in the 1996 edition which was hosted in Atlanta, Papa competed in the 200 meter freestyle, 100 meter backstroke, and the 200 meter backstroke events. In the 200 meter backstroke, he finished sixth in the third heat by clocking 2:05.69 and finished 25th overall in the heats. In the 100 meter backstroke, he finished second in the third heat by clocking 57.67. He trained with the University of Michiganswim team under Jon Urbanchek while preparing for the 1996 Olympics. Papa made his Olympic debut at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona while training with the Trojan Swim Club in Los Angeles, CA. In the 200 meter backstroke, Papa was disqualified after he had a problem in his preparation. He jumped into the swimming pool before the start of the heat but his googles fell underwater. He struggled getting his googles back and when he went back to his starting mark he was disqualified by the referee for "deliberate delay". Protests from the crowd further delayed the start of the heat by a minute.He also competed at the 100 meter backstroke and the 4 x 100 meter medley relay. In the 100 meter backstroke, Papa had a fourth place finish in the second heat by clocking 59.88 but failed to advance to the final round after finishing 43rd overall in the heats. In the latter event, he along with set a national record in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay by clocking 3:53.64 in the third heat for an overall 18th finish in the heats.
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Papa still holds the Philippines record for the 200 meter backstroke event with the time of 2:00.96 which he set at the 1997 Southeast Asian Games. It was also the SEA games record for the event which remained unbroken until 2015 when Singapore’s Quah Zheng Wen broke it by clocking 2:00.55. Papa held the Philippine record for the 100 backstroke from 1997 to 2019. Jerard Jacinto broke the 22 year old record. At the 2014 Masters World Championships, he won 3 golds for the 50 meter backstroke, 100 meter backstroke, and 200 meter backstroke. In the 1998 Asian Games, he won 2 bronze medals for the 100 meter backstroke and 200 meter backstroke. In 1997 he was ranked 16th in the world for his 2:00.96 in the 200 meter backstroke, a gold in the SouthEast Asian Games.
