Grant Hackett
“It was very important to define my goals, because they determined how hard I had to train in order to achieve them.”
Biography
Australian swimming sensation Grant Hackett was born in 1980. He won the men's 1500m freestyle at both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics. Regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers, he also won a gold medal in Sydney for the 4×200 m freestyle relay. Hackett holds the world records for 1500m and 800m freestyle. He was undefeated in the 1500m event from 1996-2006 and is the only swimmer to have won a world title in one event four times. In all, he won 10 World Championship gold medals.
Career Highlights
| 1997 | Won 1500m at Pan Pacific Championships |
| Won 400m freestyle beating Ian Thorpe | |
| 1998 | Won 1500m at World Championships |
| Member of gold medal winning relay team for 4 x 200m | |
| Won 1500m at Commonwealth Games | |
| 1999 | Broke Giorgio Lamberti's 200m freestyle world record |
| 2001 | Won 1500m, breaking the world record by seven seconds at Fukuoka World Championships |
| 2002 | Commonwealth Games in Manchester, won 1500m freestyle |
| 2003 | World Championships in Barcelona, won the 1500m |
| 2005 | Captained the Australian swimming team in Montreal World Championships |
| First person to win gold in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events | |
| Broke world record in the 800m | |
| Named Australian Swimmer of the Year | |
| Named Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World magazine |
