Grant Hackett

Grant Hacket was born on May 9, 1980 in Southport in Australia. He started competitive swimming fairly late but managed to qualify for his first international event in 1997 already. At the Pan Pacific Championships in Fukuoka he won the 400m and 1500m freestyle.

A year later at the World Championships in Perth on home soil he repeated his win over 1500m but lost to Ian Thorpe over 400m. Together with his teammates he won the 4x200m freestyle relay. At the Commonwealth Games the same year these results were repeated. A year later he surprisingly improved the World Record over 200m freestyle but lost it to Ian Thorpe just five months later.

The Olympic Games in Sydney on home soil marked a highlight in his career being the favourite for winning the 1500m freestyle going into the event. Finally he won gold over the longest distance and received another gold medal for swimming in the heats of the 4x200m freestyle relay.

At the World Championships a year later in Fukuoka Hackett was as at his best. He broke the World Record over 1500m freestyle and set the mark to 14:34.56, a time nobody could beat even with high tech suites. He was furthermore part of the team winning the 4x200m freestyle relay and setting a new World Record there. Over the shorter freestyle distances he got second behind his teammate Ian Thorpe.

In Barcelona two years later he successfully defended his title over 1500m. He added another individual gold medal over 800m freestyle, a silver over 400m and a bronze over 200m. He was also a part of the winning 4x200m freestyle relay again.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens Hackett again won over 1500m freestyle defending his title from 4 years ago. He got second behind Ian Thorpe over 400m freestyle and won silver with the 4x200m freestyle relay. After the Games it was revealed that his lung was partially collapsed. This makes the title over 1500m even more valuable and impressive.

Whilst Thorpe retired Hackett continued his remarkable career. In 2005 he won three individual gold medals at the World Championships in Montreal over 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle. A silver over 200m and a bronze with the 4x200m relay team completed the collection of medals at this event.

The darkest chapter of his career followed two years later at the World Championships in Melbourne. He could not defend one of his titles from two years ago. He finished seventh over 1500m freestyle and sixth over 800m. The defeat over 1500m was the first one over this distance since 1997. However, he managed to win a silver medal over 400m freestyle but knew after this competition that some things need to change in order to be successful at the upcoming Olympics.

Hackett did some open water competitions and qualified for the World Championships in Seville. Unfortunately he did not manage to finish in the top 10 and therefore did not qualify for the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games in Beijing he concentrated on the 1500m freestyle to become the first male swimmer to win the same event at three consecutive Olympics. He finally finished second behind Oussama Mellouli. Another bronze with the 4x200m freestyle relay set a successful end to an outstanding career.

After his active career Hackett concentrated on studying at Bond University and on his work for Nine Networks presenting the sport news on weekends. Grant Hackett will be remembered as one of the best long distance swimmer ever. From 2005 on he was captain of the Australian team. He was World Swimmer of the Year in 2005 and was awarded the Order of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II.

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