Kieren Perkins

Kieren "The King" Perkins

Personal information
Full name	Kieren John Perkins
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1973-08-14) 14 August 1973
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4+1⁄2 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Commercial
Medal record Men’s swimming Representing Australia Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona 1500 m freestyle 1996 Atlanta 1500 m freestyle 1992 Barcelona 400 m freestyle 2000 Sydney 1500 m freestyle World Championships (LC) 1994 Rome 400 m Freestyle 1994 Rome 1500 m Freestyle 1991 Perth 1500 m Freestyle Commonwealth Games 1994 Victoria 200 m freestyle 1994 Victoria 400 m freestyle 1994 Victoria 1500 m freestyle 1994 Victoria 4x200 m freestyle 1990 Auckland 1500 m freestyle 1998 Kuala Lumpur 1500 m freestyle Pan Pacific Championships 1991 Edmonton 400 m Freestyle 1991 Edmonton 800 m Freestyle 1991 Edmonton 1500 m Freestyle 1993 Kobe 400 m Freestyle 1993 Kobe 800 m Freestyle 1993 Kobe 1500 m Freestyle 1995 Atlanta 1500 m Freestyle 1995 Atlanta 800 m Freestyle 1991 Edmonton 4x200 m freestyle 1993 Kobe 4x200 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.

Biography

Perkins was born in Brisbane where he attended Indooroopilly State Primary School and 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 medal in 1989 and a Commonwealth medal by 1990.

By 1992 he dominated the 1500 m 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.

At the 1994 Commonwealth Games Perkins broke the 400 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle world records. The 800 m record was broken while swimming the 1500 m event. The 400 m record stood until it was broken by fellow Australian Ian Thorpe in 1999, and the 800 m and 1500 m records until 2001 when broken by Thorpe and Grant Hackett respectively. 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. Despite being world record holder, he failed to qualify for the 400m freestyle in April, finishing third at the Australian Championships.

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 of under 15 minutes.

Perkins has always presented a clean-cut, well-spoken image to the public, similar in many ways to Ian Thorpe. Since his retirement, he has occasionally worked in the broadcast media. He is a current board member of Swimming Australia. He married in 1997 and has three children Harry, Georgia and Charlie with wife Symantha. The couple received condolences from a number of people in sports broadcasting after suffering "three heartbreaking miscarriages before having their third child [Charlie], and Symantha underwent radical surgery [in 2007] to combat severe migraines." Symantha has since recovered her health.

In the Australia Day Honours of 1992, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OA). He is an Australian Living Treasure.

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 Australian team boss Arthur Tunstall intervened and he was subsequently allowed to stay.

In 2004, Perkins courted controversy when he stated that he felt the public's pressure for Craig Stevens to give up his spot in order to reinstate defending 400m champion Ian Thorpe to the event after being disqualified was "disgusting".

See also

• Commonwealth Games records in swimming
• World record progression 1500 metres freestyle

Further reading

• Carew, J., et al. (1997) "Kieren Perkins". Sydney, Pan Macmillan, ISBN 0-330-35866-9.

External links

• Kieren Perkins at Swimming Australia (archived)
• Kieren Perkins's Complete Biography
• Kieren Perkins at IMDb