Kieren Perkins
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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.
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[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 three children Harry, Georgia and Charlie with wife Symantha.
In the Australia Day Honours of 1992, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OA). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
[edit] Controversy
During the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, Perkins was nearly sent home in disgrace after he fired an air-pistol inside the athletes village. The head coach at the time wanted to send him home but Arthur Tunstall intervened and he was allowed to stay on.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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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 | ||
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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 |
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