Perkins made his Olympic Games debut at Barcelona in the 1992 Olympics, winning gold at just 19-years of age.
He continued his winning ways at the 1994 World Championships in Rome and the 1994 Commonwealth Games, taking gold in both the 1500 and 400 metre freestyle, before lining up in Atlanta.
Perkins fell out of form by the time Atlanta rolled around and was up against fellow Australian Daniel Kowalski who was making his debut in the Games after some impressive form at the various championships between 1992 and 1996.
Perkins only just scraped through qualification for the final of the event and had to swim out of lane eight as a result.
In fact, he only made the final 0.24, narrowly beating Steffen Zesner from Germany. It was later revealed that Perkins was close to not swimming due to illness.
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What followed in the finals though was a virtual return to the form that had won Perkins an Olympic gold medal, and various championships in between as he swum out of the ‘graveyard’ lane eight.
He would clock a time of 14:56.40, which was over six seconds ahead of Kowalski who finished second place in an incredible display.
Perkins kept fighting to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, hoping to do something similar but the true passing of the baton over to Grant Hackett finally occurred, as Perkins took silver behind Hackett.
Nonetheless, the 1996 triumph for Perkins will always be remembered as one of Australia’s best ever.
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