Kieren Perkins discusses his mental health struggles after swimming, why taxpayers get value for money from elite sport and how the Algerian boxer controversy has been hijacked.
: It’s one of the realities of the Olympics that being an Olympian does not guarantee you access to all areas and particularly not the swimming because it’s so popular, that it’s always a ticketed event.: When you make your quadrennial trip to the Games, is it a little like visiting your homeland, in the sense of “Olympia” being the place where you had your defining moments?: Absolutely.
– the noise in that arena from the crowd was extraordinary, like a physical force. I’d never experienced that before, and I think – because it was my third Games – I was at that stage where I had more self-awareness about what it all meant. And so I did actually take a moment on the way out to the blocks to pay attention to what was happening around me instead of being completely closed, focused in my little head bubble. But I’ve never felt energy like that and it just went through my chest.
Perkins and Daniel Kowalski celebrate an Australian one-two in the 1500m at the Atlanta Olympics.: I’ve got two favourite quotes from you. One was something you told my friend Konrad Marshall fromabout the impact on you of your extraordinary feat at Atlanta in 1996, when you started the final in the outside lane, as the slowest qualifier, and went on win gold.
Perkins with Grant Hackett after the 1500m final at the Sydney 2000 Games. “The fact that I was beaten by Grant probably made me more relaxed than I might have been.”: If it’s too personal a question, ignore it, but would you say you had depression afterwards?: I certainly had periods of time when I just did not know what life meant, how I was going to continue on.
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