Weekend Essay: Grant Hackett celebrates his 40th birthday today (Australia, May 9). To mark the moment, we take a dip into the archive and, through contemporary notes penned on the dates noted, we revisit a towering career and one of the highlights of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, when Hackett took on 1992 and 1996 Olympic champion and teammate Kieren Perkins. A year on and Hackett would crunch the World record down to 14:34. There were triumphs and tribulations galore throughout his career. Here’s to the man on his birthday and a swim career eternal.
Sydney 2000 – 20 years on
Later this year, 20 years will have passed since swimming witnessed a soaring 30-lap battle at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Grant Hackett claimed gold ahead of Australian teammate Kieren Perkins in the 1500m freestyle. The race was about lore, legend, legacy and an Australian tradition in motion. A nation was on tenterhooks, swimming for a moment in global focus. It was duel; it was fever pitch in the pool.
“They were full-on competitors. He was Craig’s rival. The name Kieren Perkins was the biggest talking point at our family dinner table some nights.”
Grant Hackett was describing how he had grown up hearing one name more than any other in the context of “competitive spirit”, the Craig in the scenario his brother, a youth rival to the 1992 and 1996 Olympic 1500m freestyle champion.
It would be little bro Hackett who would settle the score on a night in Sydney both epic and historic in swimming terms, the race king, the standard-setting spilling from pool to a 96.1 per cent audience share Down Under when the race was broadcast live.
I’d warned the Sports Editor of The Times, in town with his team in Sydney to oversee a news desk shifted from London to take account of the time zone at the first Games to be covered online before the newspaper went to bed: get there early, you won’t get a table or a chair if you don’t.
That editor, David Chappell, had just told us that he was taking his wife out for dinner in the Harbour on his “night off” (knowing there’s no such thing at a Games). “It’ll be standing room only: every telly will be tuned in to that race,” I said.
With a scoff and a laugh from a man who hadn’t quite appreciated that Olympic swimming – and the 1500m in particular – was just a touch bigger Down Under than it was in Britain, off he went. He was in for an awakening.
Sure enough, next day, he confessed through beaming smile: no table, no chair. “They were hanging out of every window, straining to see a screen … couldn’t believe it; it was bloody brilliant,” he said. Aquatic soccer, a match in water, head-to-head, a duel: for a rare, thrilling, sporting moment, swimming had been elevated to superstar status.
Grant Hackett by Patrick B. Kraemer
Expectation, hero vs hero-in-waiting. Olympic history on the line. And years of potential sweat, tears, pent-up emotion, driving hunger. A heady mix.
Grant Hackett had grown up watching his brother Craig beat and get beaten by Kieren Perkins over 400m freestyle; watched his brother move on to iron man and surfing; watched his brother finish sixth in the 200m freestyle at Australian Olympic trials and then watched him left at home because selectors left it at five for the relay that year. And all the while Perkins had move from dinner table talk to legend.
The Boy Perkins
It was Perth 1991 when the media scrum collected at one end of a temporary building near the pool in the days leading up to world-title racing, the first global gathering since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The pack was out to speak to Glen Housman, a man denied a world record by a timing-system failure and a refusal to accept hand-held chronometry for global marks (a pool so shallow that kids have had their teeth knocked out when diving in, so shallow as to fall shy of FINA minimum facilities standards is fine if world records are being set these days but you can forget the hand-held watch, both then and now).
There was no way in, no elbow would get me close enough to hear what Housman was saying. Best go down the other end, then, and speak to the other Australian racer in the room: Kieren Perkins, 19 and 10 years beyond the moment when he ran through a plate-glass door and got rushed to hospital to stitch up a torn calf. He followed doctor’s advice to take up the best rehab there was: swimming.
He gave a fine interview, that humble, calm, pleasant, teenager with his feet own the ground. Days later, he took silver behind Jorg Hoffmann (GER) as a warm-up for a pioneering international career in distance freestyle, one topped by two Olympic crowns over 1500m and a time warp of a world record in 1994.
So loved by Australia was Perkins that when Hackett showed up swimming fast in 1997, 1998 and 1999, it was almost as if the public Down Under was saying ‘come on mate, stick your neck in, let our hero win one last time and join Dawny in the triple crown club’. There were also those who turned that attitude on Perkins but for the most part, they wanted him to end on a high, against the odds, one more line of lore to pen: 1992, 1996, 2000.
Kieren Perkins by PBK
That mood was tangible on the morning of the 1500m heats in Sydney. Perkins hadn’t been inside 15 minutes since his win at Atlanta 1996 (Hackett 15 and back home watching on a TV screen with clubmates, coach Dennis Cotterell whispering in his ear had-way through ‘that could be you next time, mate’). Could Perkins really get back to being a contender; really rise to the occasion once more four years after making the 1996 final by a quarter of a second on his way to a title retained?
They wanted him to – “Kie-ren; Kie-ren”. By the time heat 3 was climbing out, you could sense a restlessness in the crowd. Here they come, heat 4. All eyes on lane 4. The rafters rattled from the riot of a crowd cheering as loudly as they had for Ian Thorpe‘s 400m freestyle victory for Perkins as he walked out for a 30-lap qualification. Was this a man about to walk across not swim in the water?
Not quite – but impressive he certainly was: 14:58.34, the sole sub-15 of the heats, Hackett third through on 15:07.50, Erik Vendt (USA) on 15:05.11, Ryk Neethling, the South African with a mean range of sub-15 over 30 laps and Olympic 4x100m gold as a 48sec two-lapper by the close of his career, on 15:09.12. With two heats to go after him, Perkins had wanted to make sure.
Hackett had watched heat 4 of 6 on a TV screen with coach Cotterell near the warm-up pool, the screams of “Kieren – Kieren – Kieren” audible in the deepest corners of the venue. Here was the embodiment of decades of tradition: Frank Beaurepaire (the 1500 podium in 1908, 2920 and 1924) and those who followed, Boy Charlton, Murray Rose, John Konrads, Bob Windle, Steve Holland. Could he take the triple?
Big chance, surely. After all, Hackett had had a ‘mare of a 400m and missed the final on the opening day of action. A 15:07 heat was little to go off. And the backdrop was not encouraging.
An unwelcome visit from Epstein Barr
Hackett had felt ill a couple of weeks out from Olympic trials. The Epstein Barr virus, a trigger to glandular fever, was diagnosed, rest the cure. Cotterell did not let his charge know for the next six months what the root cause of the problem was, according to author Mike Colman in “1500 – the story of Australia’s Race“, a terrific trawl of legends of the 30-lapper (Colman calls the Hackett-Perkins duel chapter “Race of the Century”)
Hackett got through trials, qualifying in the 200, 400 and 1500m and Cotterell eased off. Hackett, however, did not: without telling the coach, he was pumping weights with brother Craig for two hours at a time to try to make up for the loss of time in the water. Seven weeks out from the Olympic Games, Cotterell took his charge off the weights but knew that the game was up in terms of prospects in the 200 and 400m come the great gathering at Homebush.
Hackett would later recall that he had five wisdom teeth out at the time, too. The cuts kept coming and after the 400m miss there was the decision to drop Hackett, alongside the 1996 Olympic podium placer over 400 and 1500m, Daniel Kowalski, from the 4x200m relay final. They swam heats and that was that.
Grant Hackett by Patrick B. Kraemer
“I was really pissed off and still am,” Hackett would say in 2004. The decision to exclude ran deeper because Kowalski was in the same boat: Hackett had grown up chasing Kowalski in the Miami pool.
When Hackett got too big and boisterous for his boots as a 13-year-old one day in practice, Cotterell hauled him out and made him train in Kowalski’s lane. Many a session would finish with a ‘best effort of the day’ to end on a high.
That day, it was a timed 400m swim. Cotterell had his eye on Kowalski and others and didn’t notice Hackett. When the coach saw the time the youngster had done, he said: “You’ve been cutting ends haven’t you?”
Colman tells a tale of tall response: so indignant was Hackett that he did the 400m again to prove to Cotterell that he could do it. In fact, he went still faster. Says Cotterell in “1500”:
“That’s when I knew he had the character to be the athlete he is. When I talk about knowing a kid has what it takes, I’m not talking about times, I’m taking about character.”
From then on, Hackett trained with Kowalski, second to Perkins at Atlanta 1996.
Were destiny and fate about to throw once more in favour of the proven not the promise at Sydney 2000?
Lane 3, Hackett, Lane 4, Perkins. Before the pin was pulled you could have heard it drop. Not after. A 30-lap fanfare of furious noise followed, the rafters put on notice throughout. Hackett did what he would do on myriad occasions in the years ahead: he blasted the first 200m at a pace that cracked all but Perkins, the only survivor in the contention stakes at a lag of 1.5sec. Hackett would later say:
“I wanted to take him out fast. I wanted to hurt him and I knew to do that I had to hurt myself. If it meant I had to spend the next three weeks in hospital, I didn’t care. Whatever it took, I was going to do it.”
A solid lead established by the 200m, Hackett maintained a 2sec or so advantage all the way to the 1,000m mark, Perkins still in contention, the faithful still imagining that the double champion might come through. The chanting was unbiased with the bias expected: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.
Hackett was flowing, the fearlessness of youth, the confidence of preparation and the results of the past three seasons of breakthrough making their presence felt in metronomic two-lappers just inside the minute mark for much of the way. Could he hang on?
Off the wall at the two-thirds mark, Hackett surged. It was a case of make him and break him in the next lane. The gap 100m later was over 3sec, Perkins looking like a man who could not get to his teammate but was not about to give up the ghost to the two Americans and two Russians on his tail.
Hackett claimed his first gold in 14:48.33. The timing of taking it all in before reacting meant that Perkins was just stopping the clock at 14:53.59, faster than he’d won the race in Atlanta (his world record of 14:41.66 smiling down from its plinth in the pantheon), when the winner leapt out of the water to his waist, slammed his hand down on the surface, punched the air, his face contorted by the emotion and relief unlocked by victory. Chris Thompson (USA) pipped the rest in the battle for bronze on 14:56.
Hackett later recalled:
“With 20 metres to go, I could see the wall and thought ‘Geez, I’ve won the Olympics’. Then I thought ‘hang on, what if there’s someone else in lane 8? What If I didn’t see them?’ I hit the wall and looked at the scoreboard and the only name there was mine, and the time, 14:48.33. That’s when I turned around and went off.”
Mathilda waltzed, Dawn Fraser clapped ’em out of the water and stole a hug from the new champ as chief cheerleader in a crowd stacked with legends that night.
Olympics. In your own county. “I’ve done it – and I’m bloody happy,” says Hackett.
“All credit to Grant,” says Perkins before paying plaudits to his coach, the first crack of voice and lumpiness of throat tangible when the “Mr. Carew” (John), as the swimmer always referred to his mentor from boyhood, is raised.
Mr. Carew, for his part, though Perkins had looked better in the heats, wearing a half-suit. In the final, a full bodysuit. The coach says:
“They wear the full suits for their sponsors … I think he lost a bit of rhythm.”
Beyond the race videos, watch and listen to the interview with Hackett and Perkins side by side and handling it with honesty and professionalism.
Married with two young children, Perkins confessed that he had been on a roller-coaster since 1996:
“As Grant said, people say things about you … ‘he’s got no chance’, ‘he’s past it’, ‘he should have given up after Atlanta’ … that stuff gets to you.”
It got to Hackett, too. “I’ve been written off by a lot of people all week long. I put it into motivation … anything anyone said … I had this anger in me …”. To prove to himself and to them that he could do it.
The Interview
The monkey off his back, Hackett blossomed and bloomed in the year ahead, shattering the world record with a phenomenal 14:34.56 at the 2001 world titles in Fukuoka. Perkins had lost to the real deal of a next wave, the mantle had passed to the power of time and tide.
By The Time Hackett, beyond Athens 2004 gold, was ready to retire post silver by a slither behind Ous Mellouli at a time of bodysuits at Beijing 2008 (where the heats were faster than the final and the 1500m felt transformed by events not entirely of the swimmers’ making), Hackett had built a pantheon in the pool to be truly proud of, with 36 titles for Australia, including 10 World long-course crowns.
Hall of Fame
There’s a rule at the International Swimming Hall of Fame: no swimmer gets in until five years after the have retired from racing. So in November 2013, there was a sense of “not before time” when Grant Hackett was named in the induction class of 2014, five years beyond the 2000 and 2004 Olympic 1500m champion’s silver by a slither at Beijing 2008, the triple crown club a hand beyond his reach.
Hackett then put a torch to protocol by making a comeback. He made the cut and then raced at 2015 world titles, in Kazan.
By the time of that last race of career No1, Hackett had stacked up a cumulonimbus of pioneering standards over 30 and 60 laps. At the top of the stack were generation-busting world records of 14:34.56, long-course, and 14:10.10, short-course. The latter is still in place, the former surpassed only by Sun Yang, the Chinese Olympic and world champion who turned to Hackett’s mentor Denis Cotterell to help get him past the post at a time less controversial.
Cotterell’s program benefitted from visiting Chinese programs hooking up with Miami but there was a price to pay when Sun tested positive for a banned substance in 2014 and then served a three-month suspension in secret. Swimming Australia changed the rules: no-one who has served a suspension can train at a funded centre and all overseas swimmers must submit to Australian anti-doping testing if called to do so. Sun Yang had to go and that was to have been expected.
As Colman notes in “1500”, the Hackett family prides itself on “a sense of fair play”. There was not much of that tangible in the story of Sun Yang in 2014 and again in 2015 on a number of levels, nor could Australian coaches know enough about any Chinese program, observers noted, to feel comfortable with the responsibility they use take with the money.
Meanwhile, in the big pool at the time of his comeback, Hackett still had six of the best 20 performances over 30 laps, removing the stuff of shiny suits. He raced inside 15 minutes 27 times in his career, 16 of those inside 14:50, eight inside 14:45 and twice inside 14:40. His world-title win of 14:34.56 at Fukuoka in 2001 was one of the most spectacular standard-setting swims of all time.
One of the symbols of greatness in sport is the aura of invincibility that is developed by times on the clock and time spent at the top. Grant George Hackett set records on both those scores. His career boasted 10 years – 1997 to 2007 – of uninterrupted victories in his best event, including two Olympic titles, in 2000 and 2004.
![Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett led swimming into a new era of speed [By Patrick B. Kraemer]](http://www.swimvortex.com/wp-content/uploads/ianthorpegranthackett-202x165.jpg)
Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett led swimming into a new era of speed [By Patrick B. Kraemer]
“It is one-for-all, all-for one. It has to be like that, we all understand it and we all benefit from it. Some people say a swimmer goes to his blocks alone but that’s only partly true. I go knowing that I have my entire team with me. I carry them in my heart and my heart leaps out of my chest,” said Hackett, the first Team Captain of Australian swimming.
Born at Southport on the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Hackett, boasting a lung capacity four times that of an average man, made his senior debut for Australia at 16, winning the World short-course title in the 1,500m in Gothenburg. He would not be beaten over 30 or 60 laps again until March 2007.
Later in his debut year, aged 17, at the Pan Pacific Championships in Fukuoka, he won the 400m freestyle ahead of 14-year-old Thorpe, and the 1,500m in a class of his own. He would never beat Thorpe again in a long-course pool, but defeated his nemesis, by 0.63sec, in a world short-course record of 3:35.01 at the World Championships (25m) in Hong Kong.
At the World Championships in Perth, 1998, Hackett took silver behind Thorpe in the 400m, and then joined his rival in the 4x200m relay to deny the USA victory for the first time in the 25-year history of the championships. He then claimed his first global crown over 30 laps, in 14:51.70, and in September that year clocked 14:19.55 to break the World short-course record held by Perkins.
![Grant Hackett [courtesy of Swimming Australia]](http://www.swimvortex.com/wp-content/uploads/granthackett-250x114.jpg)
Grant Hackett [courtesy of Swimming Australia]
Beyond Sydney 200, at Fukuoka in 2001, Hackett also overhauled Perkins on the clock: he claimed silver medals behind world records set by Thorpe in the 400m (his 3:42.51 was still second fastest ever in 2008) and 800m, as well as a gold alongside Thorpe, Michael Klim and William Kirby for a 4x200m world record of 7:04.66 – and then paced out his magnum opus: 14:34.56 for the 1,500m, one of the most sensational swims in history.
Two years on, at the 2003 championships in Barcelona, Hackett retained the 1,500m crown a second time and added the 800m world title, while finishing second and third respectively in the 400m and 200m. At the Olympic Games in Athens, Hackett retained the crown in 14:43.40, with Larsen Jensen (USA) David Davies (GBR), both on 14:45, providing the closest challenge of his career as a champion. Shoulder surgery in late 2005 after his exploits at Montreal 2005 led to a lean period and long recovery.
Grant Hackett fights back the tears as David Davies salutes him – by Patrick B. Kraemer
At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, a medal in the 400m was followed by his first 30-lap defeat in 10 years: he was 6th in a final won by Mateus Sawrymowicz (POL). A week later, Hackett married Australian singer Candice Alley. The couple have since parted company.
In 2008, Hackett sought a record third Olympic 1,500m crown, though his hopes of challenging for glory in the inaugural Olympic marathon 10km title in Beijing were dashed when he failed to qualify at trials in Seville, Spain, in May 2008.
In Beijing, all looked set for Hackett to join Dawn Fraser (AUS) and Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) in the club of triple champions. The water was muddied a touch by the introduction of non-textile body suits and Hackett cut an unusual figure in a garment in which he looked uncomfortable and in company that had stepped up on the clock that first season of shiny suits.
Ryan Cochrane (CAN) and then Hackett had set Olympic records in the fastest 1500m hats in history. In the final, Hackett set the pace fort the first two thirds of the race, Cochrane shadowing. But at the 1000m mark, Oussama Mellouli – the US-based Tunisian with an anti-doping ban on his scorecard in his youth after he took a stimulant to get him through exams and found that the substance showed up in weekend racing – swept past both on his way to a 14:40.84 upset victory that was outside Hackett’s Olympic record set in heats. Hackett put in a tremendous last 100m sprint but on 14:41.53 fell just shy of the triple, Cochrane holding off Yuri Prilukov (RUS) 14:42.69 to 14:43.21 for bronze.
Hackett said at the time: “It’s tough to swallow it all, for me going for my third gold, in no doubt the toughest race on the program, I am feeling a lot of things.
“I feel relieved, I feel a bit of disappointment knowing I gave it everything. I think it took a bit too much out of me after the 1500 heat, but I spent every last cent that I had. That I came within millimetres over 12 years of doing it [winning 3 Olympic titles], I have raced some great competitors over the years who have pushed me, so it is amazing.”
He would wait a while before announcing his retirement, though the writing was on the end wall after a long and stellar career. Hackett said: “When you come out and swim fast times, people try to emulate your stroke and training so they can match you. Certainly, I’ve been swimming a long time, and competitors aged 13 or 14 who are swimming when you are swimming internationally at age 18 or 19, will copy that strategy and I was able to take myself and distance swimming forward.
“If you set that bar high, people are going to come with you. People were saying after heats that the race was so much harder, but that’s how I wanted it to be. I wanted to race the best and see what I could get out of me and it was a great.”
Grant Hackett – Athens gold and laurel – by Patrick B. Kraemer
Grant Hackett and Dan Smith, of Australia, are all smiles – by Patrick B. Kraemer
In the wake of Australia’s woes of 2012, Hackett, offered to serve as mentor to the current Aussie team. “I would be more than willing to help,” Hackett told reporters. “I have sat down with Chris Fydler and we have even discussed things we can do as past swimmers to try to help this current crop who are going through it all now. It would be getting together and talking and just opening up the dialogue, so we can understand what is going on. We’ve been through it all before ourselves, there’s a lot of wisdom there, there’s a lot of experience there that can be passed on to this current generation of swimmers.”
With a nod to James Magnussen, Olympic 100m free silver medallist, Hackett, who championed the ‘one for all, all for one’ team philosophy in his day, added: “I would have loved James Magnussen, for instance, to have given me a phone call a few days out from the Olympics saying, ‘Mate, I am feeling bloody nervous’. There is a lot of pressure on me, I didn’t know what it was going to be like competing at this environment can you give me some advice?”
Among the first to tweet congratulations to Hackett on his impending ISHOF induction was Magnussen, who wrote:
“Congratulations [Grant Hackett] on being named in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. An inspirational career and thoroughly deserved.”
Stilnox and Lessons Learned
During his retirement, Hackett flew to the United States to have treatment for an addiction to the Stilnox sleeping medication, his manager confirmed to the media. The news broke after he was found wandering around with few clothes on in a disorientated state at Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
“Grant is currently in transit to seek treatment for a dependency to Stilnox medication,” his manager Chris White told News Ltd media.
“His family and friends are enormously proud of his courage in pursuing this course of action.”
Grant Hackett – a Dolphin in Gold Cap Once More – courtesy of Swimming Australia
Hackett’s admission to a dependency on Stilnox before the London 2012 Olympic Games led to an Australian Olympic Committee ban on the substance. When members of the national swimming team then used the substance as part of a prank, the fall out post London 2012 was grave, an independent inquiry referring dramatically to a “toxic culture”.
Hackett’s father Neville told the Triple M radio station that his son was in “a little bit of denial …He thinks he just needs a bit of a recharge and a rest. I’d say rehab is certainly something that’s needed there.”
The swimmer, said Cotterell was paying a high price for the professionalism that got him to where he got to in the pool.
“I am not disappointed because he was only doing his job along the way,” Cotterell told ABC. “Representing the country, getting on planes, getting there as refreshed as he can. Simply a sleeping pill on the plane, get there ready to work.
“Nerves come before the event, you want an extra couple of hours sleep. Take a tablet. But I had no idea until it was mentioned, until these circumstances came out that it was addictive, I had no idea.”
He added: “Grant showed really some super qualities not just in the water but mentally. In terms of the application to the work, [he] was second to none ever in all of the people I’ve coached.”
From The Craig Lord Archive – Autumn 2004
A Chat With Grant Hackett in a London Restaurant, Autumn 2004
I was ready for him this time, though my fingers hurt only marginally less than they had the first time we shook hands. Grant Hackett, aquatic ironman with an iron fist, smiles broadly as he perceives a slight grimace on my face: “A firm hand – something my mum taught me.”
Taken by visions of Mrs Hackett holding me in a headlock, I was thankful that there are so many good things to write about her son, whose grip on the 1,500 metres freestyle for almost eight years has been vice-like. Unbeaten over the distance since he first won the Pan Pacific title in 1997, Hackett has collected an enviable treasury of two Olympic crowns, six world titles, three long and three short, and two Commonwealth golds.
In retaining his world crown in 2001 he took a sledgehammer to the world record to leave it at 14mins 34.56sec. Beamonesque? Not yet, apparently. “The 1500 can go into the teens,” Hackett asserts with a calm determination. Note that he says “into the teens” not “too the teens”, namely Larsen Jensen (US) and David Davies (GB), who had Australian hearts thudding in Athens. Hackett meant 14mins 19sec – that sort of teen.
“I believe that absolutely. I’m a miles better swimmer than a 14:34. My training times comparatively have improved a lot since I did that time in 2001. It’s just a matter of getting it all together, in terms of the taper, the day.”
Grant Hackett – Athens gold and laurel – by Patrick B. Kraemer
He did not quite ‘get it all together’ on the clock in Athens, though in hindsight his victory in the fastest 1,500 metres race ever was even more awesome than it looked: unbeknown to him and his coach, Denis Cotterell, Hackett competed with part of his left lung collapsed. Explains Hackett:
“It was due to the bout of mild pneumonia I had at the beginning of the year. I had to train with it because the Olympics were coming up. I didn’t realise the severity of the infection. I just got too keen, over-trained and trained when I had a chest infection.”
His lung capacity, of 12.6 litres, compares to 4 or less for most mortals, 6 for most athletes and 8 for Miguel Indurain, the Spanish cyclist.
The deflated lung was only discovered after Hackett returned home from Athens. “There was fluid on my lung. It was a bit of a shock,” said Hackett on a flying visit to Britain for a meeting with Speedo, his sponsor. “I’m a hundred per cent better now, no sign of long-term trouble.”
Nor was there any sign of trouble during the 400 metres on the first day of racing in Athens, when Hackett fell just 0.26sec shy of upsetting Ian Thorpe in the tightest race between the two men in a long-course pool (all ending in a Thorpe victory). “It was so close, says Hackett.
“To get within 0.3sec of him and then to come within 0.1sec and get the silver in the 4×200 relay, well, it’s a little hard to swallow. Sometimes you feel like you’ve lost a gold not won a silver.”
![Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett led swimming into a new era of speed [By Patrick B. Kraemer]](http://www.swimvortex.com/wp-content/uploads/ianthorpeandgranthackett-222x165.jpg)
Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett led swimming into a new era of speed [By Patrick B. Kraemer]
“There are things that I haven’t achieved yet and the 400 is certainly one of them: not to necessarily win but to improve on my best time by a fair margin and really push down where Ian’s gone before.”
“The money didn’t matter. I used it to my advantage. I put the figure on the wall in my room and when it was hard to get up some mornings I reminded myself what others were doing to try to beat me and my heart leapt from my chest.”
That chest, by the time Hackett had raced the 400, 200 and 4×200 metres in Athens, had been “aggravated” enough to make the champion wonder about the challenge ahead. “I remember speaking to Ian and Pieter (Van den Hoogenband), two other men having to back up, to defend,” Hackett recalled.
“They said they found it hard to win the second time round. Even though they’d done so well in the four years in between – Ian had done his best 200 and 400 after Sydney – for them to win the second time was really difficult. I got a first-hand understanding of that in my own race.”
And what a race it was. Only two men – Perkins and Hackett – had swum inside 14mins 50sec before – and never in the same race. In Athens, in a race Hackett won ultimately on the strength of his superior sprinting speed over the first and last 100 metres, three breached the barrier in the a battle split by 2.45sec, the Australian on 14mins 43.40sec, Jensen on 14:45.29 and Davies on 14:45.95 (4.41sec inside the European record established by Germany’s Jorg Hoffmann when he beat then little-known Australian Kieren Perkins for the world title in Perth, Western Australia, on January 13, 1991).
The race statistics thrill: in the middle 1,300m, Hackett clocked eight of the fastest 50-metre splits, to nine each for Jensen and Davies and while over the full 1,500 metres, Hackett’s average was 29.45sec per 50 metres, to 29.51 for Jensen and 29.53 for Davies, in the middle 1,300 metres, Jensen wins on 29.62sec, to 29.69 for Davies and 29.70 for Hackett. That’s how close it was: no wonder Australians clutched the edges of their seats throughout what has been described Down Under as a “two-Corona” race (because you can sink two tinnies before the finish).
With 100 metres to go, Jensen was just 0.16sec behind his quarry, with Davies 1.41sec adrift. Hackett then clocked 56.08sec, to Jensen’s 57.81sec and Davies’s 57.06sec. “I knew they were coming at me,” says Hackett.
“I just tried to keep a cool head and stuck to my race plan. It was the first time in eight and a half years I’ve had people near me – but I knew I had the greater speed, start and finish.”
Which was one of the keys that opened the door to a sub-14min 35sec swim. Could he see a day when Jensen and Davies might be able to race his way?
“Those guys are 19 going on 20 so if they’re not swimming like I do now, they’re never going to. I’ve been swimming in that race that way since I was winning national age-groups.
“Kieren Perkins could do that. But those guys are back-end swimmers. They will never have the speed while they focus on the 1500. They’ll swim it better if they hold a consistent pace and come home very fast, but in terms of going out fast, it would be going against the grain for them now.”
In Athens, Jensen and Davies “swam a perfect swim for the way they swim it. They swam a negative split, they didn’t go out too hard, they controlled their situation. It was very well planned.” Their efforts had also served to enhance his own reputation: “It was great for the 1,500 metres as well as those young guys. Even back home it’s made people appreciate the event a lot more and get a bit more of an understanding about it, about what it takes.”
Hackett prizes longevity but recognises his aquatic mortality: “First and foremost you concentrate on what you’re doing because you can’t control what others are doing. People ask me what it’s like to be have that kind of dominance of an event.
“People just expect me to be easily able to win three Olympics in a row. I always say there’s going to be someone who comes along and swims down to the times I do. It’s inevitable…the longer you have that dominance the more likely it is that someone will step up to you.”
Grant Hackett fights back the tears as David Davies salutes him – by Patrick B. Kraemer
Grant Hackett and David Davies after a thriller of a 1500m in Athens 2004 – by Patrick B. Kraemer
There is plenty of opportunity for Jensen and Davies to do just that before Beijing 2008: world championships in Montreal (2005) and Melbourne (2007) as well as the Pan Pacific Championships and Commonwealth Games. Could Hackett see himself attacking 14:34 every time he raced to keep the pretenders at bay? “I’ll try,” he laughs, adding: “I’m not afraid to lose, so regardless of where I’m at, I’ll prepare the best I can. I want to step forward. In that sense, having David and Larsen there means that at every meet I’ll be showing up to race people who are ready and want to race fast.”
Win or lose, Hackett wants to end his career still in possession of the world record and does not rule out a timed swim in the absence of pressure to achieve that aim. “I’ve discussed with my coach the times I’m capable of and I know I can improve on that 14:34. I don’t think I’d stay in the sport if I didn’t think I could go any faster.
“I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve so now it’s about finding out how fast I can go. In terms of other people getting down there too, yes, definitely, I can’t see why not.”
He rates Davies highly: “David is a young guy, he’s very focused, very disciplined. How much he improves from here will be small increments and it will be tough. He’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t get too excited about it and makes sure swimming isn’t the only thing. I’ve been fortunate to make a lot out of my sport, which I’m very grateful for, but I still go to University. I study law. It’s a necessary diversion.”
If he is complimentary about the athletic efforts of the pretenders, he sees the teenagers as having very different personalities. “They are very different people, with very different attitudes,” says Hackett, who has made no secret of the fact that has found Jensen to be “a little boastful” in the past. [Here’s some perspective on how time and experience can change things]
“I would always prefer to race a competitor who is humble, accepting of their competitors, a gentleman. I don’t expect them to like me because we’re all different. But I do expect them to have respect and be gentleman-like.”
He adds: “If they’re not, they’re not, that’s not my problem, people are going to think less of them if they go around with a cocky attitude and I’m not saying that about anyone in particular, just competitors full-stop.”
Grant Hackett, 2015 version, courtesy of Swimming Australia
For Davies, he has only plaudits: “David Davies is an absolute pleasure to talk to, I have a lot of respect for him. I hope he does well and succeeds at the level he wants to succeed at – and not at the cost of me losing. He’s an absolute gentleman and it’s a pleasure to be on the blocks beside someone like that.” Praise indeed from one of the sport’s great ambassadors.
During his six-week break after Athens Hackett visited China and Hong Kong as an Olympic ambassador for Australia. And then he popped over to Britain to work with sponsor Speedo at its HQ.
His busy schedule on the road and in the pool had made a viable relationship hard to come by. “I’m very, very single,” says one of Australia’s most eligible bachelors, with his hinterland farm overlooking some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet and an income to place him among the top 50 earning sportsmen in a sports-mad nation where 10 million have been known to tune in to televised swimming.
Hackett’s return to training in mid-November, as spring turned to summer in Queensland, spelled a change of regime: “During a break you might go out regularly for Saturday night drinks. I’m not a big drinker but when I’m back in training I really have to look after my body. There are no extremes – moderation is healthy. I’m already looking forward to Montreal [2005 worlds].”
Reflecting on his achievements, Grant Hackett by Patrick B. Kraemer
No chance then that he might take out the Athens video again and slump in recognition that his time was nigh? “It motivates me,” he says. “You think you’re doing the best you can and then all of a sudden someone comes up beside you and you find another 10 per cent . That’s what it’s done for me. Their attitude of wanting to knock me off and take that title is certainly motivational.
“Every time I see the video tape of the race in Athens it almost makes me angry and makes me want to get to the pool. It’s a competitive world and when an event starts to get fiercely contested it makes me hungrier.”
We have been warned.
We eat, we chat, Hackett a man easy to spend time with. He rises from his chair, towering above all others about him, and we wander out into the weak light of a dying day as men on ladders deck the street with the Christmas lights of a new season of festivity.
There’ll be more of those for Hackett before he’s done. That much you know for sure as he grips your hand in a steely palm, thanks, smiles and turns to make his way through the chill and coated crowd.
From the Craig Lord Archive – 2017
Grant Hackett On His Trail-Of-Tears Transition To A Life More Ordinary
The transition from superstar swimmer to a life more ordinary has long presented a struggle for those who live much of their youths pinned to the dedication and discipline it takes to claim Olympic gold. The bigger the success rate, the louder the fall seems to resonate. Just ask Grant Hackett.
He grew up and trained at the Miami club under the guidance of coach Denis Cotterell. Hackett ended his swimming days with a soaring record of achievement and a clean record but his transition to “ordinary life” was steeped in the stuff that suggested that, in contrast to his preparation in the pool, his preparation for life beyond the race was either missing or woefully off-balance.
Earlier this year, he hit the headlines once more, his face beaten, his reputation dragged through a hedge backwards, his mental welfare a matter of deep concern to those closest to him.
This week, Hackett, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic 1500m freestyle champion, spoke about his personal drama on KIIS 1065’s Kyle and Jackie O radio show in Australia.
The 37-year-old confirmed that excessive drinking had led to his arrest earlier this year – and the punch that painted a picture of a broken man in a more literal sense was landed by his brother Craig.
Hackett was arrested in February at the Gold Coast home of his parents, Margaret and Nev, after they rang the police for assistance as their son’s erratic behaviour took a turn for the worse
The 1500m man, whose woes included an addiction to a sleeping pill he would take for long-haul travel to major competitions at the height of his career in the pool, was taken into police custody but released without charge.
Grant Hackett and the battered image that made another headline this week Down Under as the 1500m man explained how brother Craig landed one to try to bring him to his senses… ragout, The Australian
Hackett told listeners how Craig, a surf lifesaving champion, had arrived at the family home but was refused entry by Grant. An argument ensued and Craig landed the blow that caught the cameras.
Here is what Hackett had to tell radio listeners this week:
“I didn’t get any punches in there as you could see from the results. I think it shocked him. I wasn’t in a good space for a couple of months and he came over to my house and I was refusing that help, I didn’t want him to come in and when I get in that state of mind I get quite reclusive.
“He wanted to come in, I didn’t want him to come in. I was trying to push him out and we got into a push-and-shove and he whacked me with his weak arm, so I’d hate to see him with his strong arm. We were both very regretful of the situation.
“I was very upset with my brother, he was very upset with me. I didn’t drink through that period but it all became too much.”
“Obviously it was pretty shocking from my end and to look back on that footage is quite agonising. I was in a bad place, I suffer from pretty bad anxiety and ended up drinking. I drank too much at my parents’ house and got into an argument with my dad. I went into their guesthouse and locked myself in there but they didn’t know that … I woke up to two police officers, I was shocked. It was quite terrifying.
“Once I was released with that I didn’t know where I was at with my family and I just went to a hotel for four or five days.”
He recalls his frame of mind after his arrest: “I wasn’t in a good space, I was deep down in that ditch and hit rock bottom. When I got arrested I thought, ‘This is it, I’ve had enough of this’ (it’s time to get help).
“I get anxiety, I haven’t handled the past few years very well in bits and pieces. Ever since I went thought that divorce and all the publicity that followed.”
In that last sentence, Hackett points to the depth of understanding required in the pond of interpretation about his trail of sorrow these past few years. It is not just about how to cope with the come-down from life on the high-wave of achievement but how to cope with failure in other realms when it – as it is likely to do in a lifetime – comes a-calling.
The Australian, among media outlets giving the Hackett interview deep coverage, lists a pathway to pain that included:
- Hackett split with wife Candice Alley in 2012 after five years of marriage. The couple’s twins were born in September 2009.
- In 2012 he was involved in a meltdown at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, when he destroyed his apartment and tipped over a piano in front of his then wife and young children.
In his heyday in the pool as the latest in a long tradition of Aussie 1500m greats: Grant Hackett (inset with Kieren Perkins) – by Patrick B. Kraemer
Hackett said he had wanted his marriage to end, telling the radio show:
“I smashed up the place because I wanted the marriage to end at that time. The piano was tipped on its side, I did that. It was so public, you get in this depressed state and you’re just looking for something to numb it. I just wanted to sleep.”
Hackett, who in 2015 and 2016 made a comeback but just fell shy of qualifying for the Rio Olympic Games, spent New Year with another Aussie great of swimming who found the going tough on his way from pool to a life more ordinary, Ian Thorpe: both were hosted by Michael Phelps and family, including coach Bob Bowman.
Phelps invited Hackett to spend several weeks with his family in America to grant him some time away from the limelight, a chance to reflect.
Hackett posted pictures on social media that showed him looking fit and well, while Phelps told media: “Hacky is like a brother to me. Grant and I have been good friends since 2001 and my heart hurt when he went through those things. I just wanted to spend time with him, whether it’s him chatting with me or hanging out. I wanted to try and help as much as I could.”
Many Happy Returns Of The Day, Grant Hackett