Who is Grant Hackett?
Grant Hackett is a retired Australian distance swimmer who won the 1500 metres freestyle at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics. He also set a 1500 metres world record that stood for ten years.
Hackett was born in Southport, on the Gold Coast, in 1980. He dominated distance swimming in the late 1990s and 2000s, winning many world championship titles.
At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, he won gold in the 1500 metres freestyle, ending Kieren Perkins's hopes of a third consecutive title. He also won gold in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay.
Unbeaten in the 1500
Hackett went unbeaten in the 1500 metres freestyle in major finals for about a decade. He won the event at the 2004 Athens Olympics despite swimming with a partially collapsed lung.
In 2001, he set a world record of 14 minutes 34.56 seconds in the 1500 metres freestyle at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The record lasted until 2011.
Hackett won silver in the 1500 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, narrowly missing a third consecutive title. He retired after those Games and made a brief comeback in 2015.
Did You Know?
Hackett was coached for much of his career by Denis Cotterell on the Gold Coast.