Daniel Steven Kowalski (born 2 July 1975 in Singapore) is a former Australian middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200 m, 400 m and 1,500 m individual freestyle events and in the 4x200 m freestyle relay. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200 m, 400 m and 1500 m freestyle events. Kowalski was however perhaps best known for being perpetual "bridesmaid" to fellow Australians Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett, who were respectively the world's best 1500 m freestyle competitors during the earlier and later parts of Kowalski's career. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. [1].
[edit] Olympic medals
- 2000 Summer Olympics: gold medal in the 4x200 m freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by Ian Thorpe but as a swimmer in the qualifying heat, he shares the gold medal).
- 1996 Summer Olympics: silver medal in the 1500 m freestyle, bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle, and bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle.
[edit] World championship results
[edit] World records
Kowalski was part of the world record setting Australian gold medal 4x200 m relay team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Kowalski also holds 400 freestyle long course masters world record in the 30 to 34 age group which he set on the 2nd May 2009 in a time of 3:58.42
[edit] Retirement
Kowalski announced his retirement from competitive swimming on 8 May 2002. He studied sports marketing at Bond University, graduating in 2003. He was named as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2007, and also won the 2007 Pier to Pub 1.2 km open water swim – the largest open water swim in the world – held annually in Lorne, Australia.[2]
In February 2004, he was the host of an overnight program on SEN 1116 with former Magic basketballer Andrew Parkinson. In May 2007 Kowalski appeared as one of the celebrity performers on the celebrity reality singing competition It Takes Two.
In April 2010 Kowalski announced that he is gay.[3] Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced last December that he was gay.
He said "I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence".
In 2010, Kowalski was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians.[4]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
|
|
|
- 1973: United States (Krumpholz, Backhaus, Klatt, Montgomery)
- 1975: West Germany (Steinbach, Lampe, Geissler, Nocke)
- 1978: United States (Furniss, Forrester, Hackett, Gaines)
- 1982: United States (Saeger, Float, Miller, Gaines)
- 1986: East Germany (Hinneburg, Flemming, Richter, Lodziewski)
- 1991: West Germany (Sitt, Zesner, Pfeiffer, Groß)
- 1994: Sweden (Wallin, Werner, Frölander, Holmertz)
- 1998: Australia (Klim, Thorpe, Hackett, Kowalski)
- 2001: Australia (Hackett, Kirby, Klim, Thorpe)
- 2003: Australia (Hackett, Stevens, Sprenger, Thorpe)
- 2005: United States (Phelps, Lochte, Vanderkaay, Keller)
- 2007: United States (Phelps, Lochte, Keller, Vanderkaay)
- 2009: United States (Phelps, Berens, Walters, Lochte)
- 2011: United States (Phelps, Vanderkaay, Berens, Lochte)
|
|
|
|
|
- 1993: Sweden (Wallin, Werner, Frölander, Holmertz)
- 1995: Australia (Klim, Dunn, Allen, Kowalski)
- 1997: Australia (Klim, Hackett, Kirby, Dunn)
- 1999: Netherlands (Van den Hoogenband, Kenkhuis, Zuijdweg, Wouda)
- 2000: United States (Davis, Walker, Tucker, Carvin)
- 2002: Australia (Pearson, Hass, Dunne, Hackett)
- 2004: United States (Lochte, Carvin, Ketchum, Mortimer)
- 2006: Italy (Rosolino, Pelliciari, Cassio, Magnini)
- 2008: Australia (Palmer, Brits, Sprenger, Monk)
- 2010: Russia (Lobintsev, Izotov, Lagunov, Sukhorukov)
|
|
|
|
|
- 1985: USA (Heath, Biondi, Dillon, Oppel)
- 1987: USA (Dalbey, Biondi, Cetlinski, Oppel)
- 1989: USA (Stewart, Jorgensen, Olsen, Gjertsen)
- 1991: USA (Dalbey, Jorgensen, Hudepohl, Olsen)
- 1993: USA (Burgess, Eckerman, Taner, Davis)
- 1995: AUS (Allen, Housman, Dunn, Kowalski)
- 1997: USA (Carvin, Malchow, Taner, Davis)
- 1999: AUS (Thorpe, Kirby, Hackett, Klim)
- 2002: AUS (Hackett, Stevens, Cram, Thorpe)
- 2006: USA (Phelps, Lochte, Vanderkaay, Keller)
- 2010: USA (Phelps, Vanderkaay, Berens, Lochte)
|
|
| Persondata |
| Name |
Kowalski, Daniel |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
Swimmer |
| Date of birth |
2 July 1975 |
| Place of birth |
Singapore |
| Date of death |
|
| Place of death |
|
Australia
