Kieren Perkins - Biography

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, 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 and is currently Head of Business Development and Acquisitions at NAB Private Wealth. He is a current board member of Swimming Australia.