Daniel Kowalski . He is an Australian swimmer, former medium and long distance, specialized in freestyle events, four times Olympic medalist.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Sports career
- 2 Medals obtained
- 3 Source
Biographical synthesis
He was born 2 as July as 1975 , Singapore , Australia . From a young age he excelled in competitions, has demonstrated a remarkable ability to cope with adversity and continues to produce extraordinary performances.
Sports career
At age 16, he missed the selection for the 1992 Olympic team , when he finished third in the 1500m freestyle. That same year, he developed glandular fever, but returned from the disease to earn his place in the 1993 Pan Pacific Championship – he finished second to Kieran Perkins in the 1500 meters, 800 meters and 400 meters freestyle.
In December 1993 , he was representative in single distance of Australia at the opening of the World Short Swimming Championships in Mallorca, where he won gold in the 400 meters and 1500 meters freestyle.
A month before the Commonwealth Games rehearsals in 1994 , Daniel contracted a viral infection that destroyed his final preparation and left him expecting failure. Instead, he surprised Australia, not to mention Kieran Perkins – by beating the Olympic champion over both the 400m and 1500m freestyle – and broke the 15-minute barrier for the first time.
He had just turned 19 years old when he was swimming a personal best time in Rome , at the World Championships. Before the race he had been violently ill with food poisoning, and was still suffering acutely when swimming. Despite this, his silver medal swimming behind Kieran Perkins was the fourth fastest time of all.
Daniel’s courage is already legendary. After moving to Melbourne he concentrated on preparing for the Atlanta Olympics. His coach felt he was stronger after enduring the trials of the past few years and his exceptional performances at the Australian Pools Championships finally gave Daniel his clear run to Atlanta , where he left with more medals than any other Australian – one silver. and two of bronze.
In 1997 , a serious shoulder injury kept him out of the water until about eight weeks before World Championship trials. Once again, with such limited preparation, it was not expected to qualify for the team. He confused everyone, including himself, by qualifying for the 4 x 200 meter relay and 1,500 meter freestyle, in which he came home with two gold medals in – a relay and a bronze in the 1,500 meters.
In 1998 he was appointed sports ambassador to the United Nations. It was in this capacity that he visited some refugee camps on the Thailand / Cambodia border .
He qualified in the 4 x 200m relay team for the Australian team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics again so determined to swim despite missing a great deal of training due to shoulder surgery earlier in the year. Another gold medal was added to his list of accomplishments when the 4 x 200 meter relay team won the final in Sydney. In May 2002, Daniel announced his retirement from competitive swimming.
In 2004 he was asked to be the mentor of the Australian team Swimming towards Athens and was a commentator for 2 GB (Sydney) and SEN (Melbourne).
Daniel spent two years on the organizing committee for the 2007 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne. During this time he worked in the marketing department, while during the actual championships he was the main point of contact for all visiting teams.
At the end of his World Championship contract he found himself singing live on national television every week with famous Australian singer Kate Ceberano on 7 channels popular variety show “It Takes Two.” He lasted on the show for seven weeks, with all proceeds going beyond Blue, an organization aimed at educating the public about major depression.
In July 2007 he chose to go a different path when he took a position as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin. It was a very valuable learning experience but when a call from Channel 7 came in asking him to be the pool deck interviewer for swimming at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kowalski decided to give up his second year contract, 100 inches of snow for winter with -60 degree temperature and head back in frame.
Medals obtained
Olympics 2000 Olympics: gold medal in the 4 × 200 meter freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by Ian Thorpe, but as a swimmer in the qualifying race, sharing the gold medal). 1996 Summer Olympics: silver medal in the 1500m freestyle, bronze medal in the 400m freestyle, and the bronze medal in the 200m freestyle.
World Championships 1998 World Water Sports Championships: silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle 1994 World Swimming Championship: gold medal in the 4 × 200-meter relay, bronze medal in the 1500-meter freestyle
World Records Kowalski was part of Australia’s gold medal world record 4 × 200 meter relay team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Kowalski also holds a 400 meter freestyle world record long course matrices in the 30-34 age group that he set on May 2, 2009 in a time of 3: 58.42.
