Craig Stevens (swimmer)

Craig Stevens

Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing  Australia
Olympic Games
Silver	2004 Athens[1]	4x200 m freestyle
World Championships (LC)
Gold	2003 Barcelona	4x200 m freestyle
Silver	2007 Melbourne	800m freestyle
World Championships (SC)
Gold	2002 Moscow[2]	4x200 m freestyle
Commonwealth Games
Bronze	2002 Manchester[3]	1500 m freestyle
Pan Pacific Championships
Gold	2002 Yokohama	4x200 m freestyle
Goodwill Games
Bronze	2001 Brisbane	400m Freestyle
Bronze	2001 Brisbane	1500m Freestyle

Craig Stevens (born 23 July 1980 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an retired Australian freestyle swimmer specialising in the 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m freestyle events. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.^[4]

Stevens was the bronze medallist in the 1500 m freestyle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but he narrowly missed out on a medal in the 400 m freestyle, finishing 4th.

In 2004, Stevens made his Olympic Games debut at Athens. There, he won silver as part of the Australian 4x200 m relay team and also made the final in the 1500 m. He relinquished his place in the 400 m freestyle for World Record Holder Ian Thorpe, who was disqualified in the event at the Australian trials.

Stevens was initially left out of the Australian team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in his home country. However, Ian Thorpe had to withdraw from the games due to illness, which allowed Stevens to take Thorpe's place in the team. After qualifying as the fastest heat swimmer, he again came 4th in the 400 m freestyle final. He also contested the 1500 m freestyle final and finished in 6th place.

In March 2007, Stevens won his first World Championship medal after finishing 3rd in the 800m freestyle final with a personal best time of 7:48.67. After the disqualification of Oussama Mellouli, Stevens was elevated to 2nd. At the same meet, he also broke the 15-minute barrier in the 1500m freestyle for the first time, finishing 6th in the final with a time of 14:59.11.

Stevens qualified for the Australian Olympic Swimming Team for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics on 29 March 2008 at the Australian Olympic Qualifiers at Homebush in Sydney. He qualified for both the 400 metres and 1500 metres freestyle events. He finished 2nd behind Grant Hackett in the 1500 metres with a personal best of 14:53.18 making him the third fastest performer by an Australian in history.

Stevens failed to qualify for the finals of the 400m freestyle at the Olympics as he was comprehensively out-swum, finishing in 8th place in heat three, 7 seconds behind the winner. In the 1500m freestyle, Stevens again failed to make the finals finishing 5th in heat four, some 17 seconds behind the winner and 8 seconds outside of his personal best.

References