1996 | Kieren Perkins | Olympic Gold | 14:56.40 | 1500m Freestyle | Kowalski Silver | 1 of 2

[sonottiny]

im not a fan of swimming at all but i love sport and this was a true sporting moment

[takerrvids]

greatest swim ever

[luv2dou2]

I remember watching this - i was working at the time and TV's were everywhere in the shopping centre. I remember people stopping and crowding around the TV's to watch him win in complete silence and awe. I thought he may win it even though he barely made the final. I cried when he won. A magic moment in Australian Sport. Grant Hackett never had the same sort of effect or love from the public like Perkins did IMO Pure guts and determination - a true sporting legend.

[bathtownship]

Kieren Perkins brought distance swimming to a different level, 2 time Olympic champion is not bad either.

[Bubsy75]

Better than Hackett the hack. Puts goosebumps o nmy neck everytime I see it. Champion.

[wolftube2009]

I remmber seeing this live, it was so amazing.

[SPOOKSTR]

This was the ''Rope a dope'' of swimming......truly a magic moment in Aussie sport.

[Holden308]

I remember seeing this on TV early one Saturday morning back in 1996.  Damn if I didn't get the feeling all along that he would win. I wish I had put money on my gut feeling.

Damn lol

[andyr798ken]

Phelps...

[brianclough]

For much of the 90s, he was my favourite swimmer. Not Popov, Biondi, Morales et al, Perkins was Superman.

Vladimir Salnikov, the outstanding long distance swimmer was considered so far ahead of his time, when he broke the 15min barrier, that you couldn't see anyone breaking this record for a very long time.

Enter 1 Kieran Perkins. He simply took the 400 & 1500m events to an even higher level. This provided the impetus for Grant Hackett to take up the torch & succeed.

A True Champion - Perkins.

[dermut71]

one of my favourite sporting moments and I'm not a big fan of swimming - fantastic victory!!

[pisong27]

Truly one of those rare magical moments. Makes an aussie proud