Kieren Perkins

Medal record
Competitor for  Australia
Olympic Games
Men’s swimming
Gold	1992 Barcelona	1500 m freestyle
Gold	1996 Atlanta	1500 m freestyle
Silver	1992 Barcelona	400 m freestyle
Silver	2000 Sydney	1500 m freestyle
World Championships - Long Course
Silver	1991 Perth	1500m Freestyle
Gold	1994 Rome	400m Freestyle
Gold	1994 Rome	1500m Freestyle
Commonwealth Games
Men’s swimming
Silver	1990 Auckland	1500 m freestyle
Gold	1994 Victoria	200 m freestyle
Gold	1994 Victoria	400 m freestyle
Gold	1994 Victoria	1500 m freestyle
Bronze	1998 Kuala Lumpur	1500 m freestyle

Kieren John Perkins OAM (born August 14, 1973), is a former Australian professional swimmer. One of the world's best-ever long-distance swimmers, he won two Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996 in the 1500-metre freestyle, and a silver medal in 2000.

Biography

Perkins was born in Brisbane where he attended Brisbane Boys' College. He began swimming regularly at age eight as part of his rehabilitation from a serious leg injury (after running through a plate glass window). At age 13 his potential became obvious, and with coach John Carew guiding him he won his first national title in 1989 and a Commonwealth title by 1990. By 1992 he dominated the 1500-metre event, demolishing a long-standing world record. He dominated the event at the Barcelona Olympic games, lowering the record to 14 minutes, 43 seconds - a massive improvement. He was also the world record holder in the 400 m freestyle, but this was broken by the Russian Yevgeny Sadovyi in Barcelona, relegating Perkins to silver. In 1994, Perkins broke both the 400 m and 1500 m freestyle world records. They were to stand until 1999 and 2001 respectively, broken by fellow Australians Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett. His performances in that year earned him the Male World Swimmer of the Year award from the Swimming World magazine. At the time of the 1996 Olympics, Perkins was out of form and long-time Australian rival Daniel Kowalski was regarded as the favourite. He qualified for the final by a mere 0.24 seconds and it was later revealed that Perkins felt unwell and considered not swimming. From lane eight, Perkins dominated the race, again relegating Kowalski to his perennial bridesmaid position. After his Atlanta triumph, some commentators were surprised when Perkins decided to continue competing, particularly as the rise of Grant Hackett, yet another Australian distance swimmer, made it seem unlikely that Perkins could win again. However, the lure of a home Olympics was too much for Perkins. Hackett completed his rise to the top by beating Perkins, who took the silver medal in a respectable time under 15 minutes. Perkins has always presented a clean-cut, well-spoken image to the public, similar in many ways to Ian Thorpe (despite once controversially calling Thorpe's action before the 2004 Olympics "disgusting"). Since his retirement, he has occasionally worked in the broadcast media. He is a current board member of Swimming Australia. He is married and has two children. His wife Symantha is a chronic migraine sufferer [1]. In the Australia Day Honours of 1993, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OA). He is an Australian Living Treasure.

See also

• Commonwealth Games records in swimming
• World record progression 1500m freestyle

External links

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

• Swimming Australia profile for Kieren Perkins
• Kieren Perkins's Complete Biography
• Kieren Perkins at the Internet Movie Database

Records
Preceded by Jörg Hoffmann	Men's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Long Course) April 5, 1992 – July 29, 2001	Succeeded by Grant Hackett
Preceded by Incumbent	Men's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Short Course) February 2, 1992 – September 27, 1998	Succeeded by Grant Hackett
Awards
Preceded by Károly Güttler	World Swimmer of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Denis Pankratov