Daniel Kowalski

Daniel Kowalski
Personal information
Full nameDaniel Steven Kowalski
National team Australia
Born (1975-07-02) 2 July 1975 (age 49)
Singapore
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight76 kg (168 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle

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, 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, hosted the short-lived TV show Plucka's Place in 1997. Kowalski is perhaps best known for having been a perpetual runner-up to fellow Australians Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett, 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 scholarship holder.[1] Daniel's coaches included Denis Cotterell and Bill Nelson.