Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Craig Julian Stevens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Sydney | 23 July 1980||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 82 kg (181 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Sutherland Leisure Aquadot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Craig Julian Stevens (born 23 July 1980) is an Australian former freestyle swimmer specialising in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. [3]
Stevens was the bronze medallist in the 1500m freestyle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, [4] but he narrowly missed out on a medal in the 400m freestyle, finishing 4th.
In 2004, Stevens made his Olympic Games debut at Athens. There, he won silver as part of the Australian 4×200m relay team and also made the final in the 1500m. He relinquished his place in the 400m freestyle for world record holder Ian Thorpe, who had been disqualified from the event at the Australian trials.
Stevens was initially left out of the Australian team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in his home country. However, Ian Thorpe had to withdraw from the games due to illness, which allowed Stevens to take Thorpe's place in the team. After qualifying as the fastest heat swimmer, he again came 4th in the 400m freestyle final. He also contested the 1500m freestyle final and finished in 6th place.
In March 2007, Stevens won his first World Championship medal after finishing 3rd in the 800m freestyle final with a personal best time of 7:48.67. After the disqualification of Oussama Mellouli, Stevens was elevated to 2nd. At the same meet, he also broke the 15-minute barrier in the 1500m freestyle for the first time, finishing 6th in the final with a time of 14:59.11.
Stevens qualified for the Australian Olympic swimming team for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics on 29 March 2008 at the Australian Olympic Qualifiers at Homebush in Sydney. He qualified for both the 400m and 1500m freestyle events. He finished 2nd behind Grant Hackett in the 1500m with a personal best of 14:53.18, making him the third fastest Australian 1500m swimmer in history.
Stevens failed to qualify for the finals of the 400m freestyle at the Olympics as he was comprehensively out-swum, finishing in 8th place in heat three, 7 seconds behind the winner. In the 1500m freestyle, Stevens again failed to make the finals finishing 5th in heat four, some 17 seconds behind the winner and 8 seconds outside of his personal best.
Stevens retired from competitive swimming in 2008. After retiring from swimming, he worked first as a bank teller and then for Toyota. He is now head swimming coach at Sans Souci Leisure Centre in Sans Souci, New South Wales. [5] [6]
Ian James Thorpe is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in his hometown of Sydney.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
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