Daniel Steven Kowalski (born 2 July 1975) is an Australian former middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200-, 400- and 1,500-metre individual freestyle events and in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay. At the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200-, 400- and 1500-metre freestyle events. Kowalski, alongside

Livinia Nixon Livinia Helen Nixon (born 19 March 1975) is an Australian television presenter and actress. Nixon is the chief weather presenter for '' Nine News Melbourne'' and presenter on travel program '' Getaway''.Kieren Perkins and

Grant Hackett Grant George Hackett Order of Australia, OAM (born 9 May 1980) is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle swimming, freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in ...

, who were, respectively, the world's best 1500-metre freestyle competitors during the earlier and later parts of Kowalski's career. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder. Daniel's coaches included Denis Cotterell and

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician, attorney, and former astronaut who served from 2001 to 2019 as a United States Senate, United States senator from Florida and from 2021 to 2025 as the Administrator ...

Olympic medals

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

: gold medal in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by

Ian Thorpe Ian James Thorpe (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle swimming, freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the medley swimming, individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the se ...

but as a swimmer in the qualifying heat, he shares the gold medal) *

: silver medal in the 1500-metre freestyle, bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle, and bronze medal in the 200-metre freestyle

World championship results

* 1998 World Aquatics Championships: bronze medal in the 1500-metre freestyle *

1994 World Aquatics Championships The 1994 FINA World Aquatics Championships were held in Rome, Italy between September 1 and September 11, 1994. Medal table Results Diving ;Men ;Women Open water swimming ;Men ;Women Swimming ;Men ;Women Synchronized swimmi ...

: gold medal in the 4 × 200-metre relay, silver medal in the 1500-metre freestyle

World records

Kowalski was part of the world record-setting Australian gold medal 4 × 200-metre relay team at the

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ( Malay: ), officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games (Malay: ), were a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 1998 games were the first held in Asia and the last Commonwealth Games of the 20th cen ...

. Kowalski also holds 400-metre freestyle long-course masters world record in the 30-to-34 age group which he set on 2 May 2009 in a time of 3:58.42.

Retirement

Kowalski announced his retirement from competitive swimming on 8 May 2002. He studied sports marketing at

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private university, private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, Queensland, Robina on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its opening on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teachi ...

, graduating in 2003. He was named as an assistant swimming coach at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 2007, and also won the 2007 Pier to Pub 1.2 km open-water swim held annually in Lorne, Australia. In February 2004, he was the host of an overnight program on

SEN 1116 1116 SEN (call sign 3AK) is an Australian radio station in Victoria, Australia. Owned and operated by Sports Entertainment Group, it broadcasts a sports radio format. It commenced broadcasting on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the station currently ...

with former South East Melbourne Magic basketballer Andrew Parkinson. In May 2007, Kowalski appeared as one of the celebrity performers on the celebrity reality singing competition '' It Takes Two''. In April 2010, Kowalski announced that he is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced the previous December that he was gay. He said "I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence". In 2010, Kowalski was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians.

References

External links