Kieren Perkins

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Men’s swimming
Olympic medal record
Gold	1992 Barcelona	1500 m freestyle
Gold	1996 Atlanta	1500 m freestyle
Silver	1992 Barcelona	400 m freestyle
Silver	2000 Sydney	1500 m freestyle

Kieren John Perkins (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 controversialy calling Thorpes' 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.

As of 2004, he is married to Symantha and has two children.