Swimming at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games:

Australia have a tradition of success in the 1,500 metres at the Olympic Games that goes all the way back to Boy Charlton and, in the shape of defending champion Kieren Perkins and world record holder Grant Hackett , the nation had the two outstanding men in the event. On the evening of the 23rd September Australia, almost as one, sat down to the watch the Olympic final. The final viewing figures showed 95% of all TV sets in the country were tuned in to the race.

Hackett had been the marginal pre-Games favourite but had been outpaced by Perkins in the heats.

The final was a different story and Hackett took the lead from the first stroke. Perkins kept pace until the 800 metres mark but Hackett’s relentless pace took him clear and he finished five seconds clear of his team-mate. Chris Thompson of the USA held off the fast finishing Russian Aleksey Filipets

for the bronze medal. It was the first time in Olympic history that all three medalists went under 15 minutes