Kieren Perkins
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Image:Flag of Australia.svg 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] 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
Olympic champions in men's 1500 m freestyle |
|---|
1906: Henry Taylor | 1908: Henry Taylor | 1912: George Hodgson | 1920: Norman Ross | 1924: Boy Charlton | 1928: Arne Borg | 1932: Kusio Kitamura | 1936: Noboru Terada | 1948: James McLane | 1952: Ford Konno | 1956: Murray Rose | 1960: John Konrads | 1964: Bob Windle | 1968: Mike Burton | 1972: Mike Burton | 1976: Brian Goodell | 1980: Vladimir Salnikov | 1984: Michael O'Brien | 1988: Vladimir Salnikov | 1992: Kieren Perkins | 1996: Kieren Perkins | 2000: Grant Hackett | 2004: Grant Hackett |
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Image:Flag of Germany.svg Jörg Hoffmann | Men's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Long Course) April 5, 1992 – July 29, 2001 | Succeeded by Image:Flag of Australia.svg Grant Hackett |
| Preceded by Incumbent | Men's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Short Course) February 2, 1992 – September 27, 1998 | Succeeded by Image:Flag of Australia.svg Grant Hackett |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by Image:Flag of Hungary.svg Károly Güttler | World Swimmer of the Year 1994 | Succeeded by Image:Flag of Russia.svg Denis Pankratov |
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Categories: Articles lacking in-text citations | People from Queensland | 1973 births | Living people | People from Brisbane | Olympic swimmers of Australia | Australian freestyle swimmers | Swimmers at the 1990 Commonwealth Games | Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics | Swimmers at the 1994 Commonwealth Games | Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics | Swimmers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games | Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics | Swimming World World Swimmers of the Year | Olympic gold medalists for Australia | Olympic silver medalists for Australia | Commonwealth Games gold medalists for Australia | Commonwealth Games silver medalists for Australia | Commonwealth Games bronze medalists for Australia
