Daniel Kowalski
Champion swimmer.
Profile
Daniel Kowalski is an Olympic Champion who, at Atlanta 1996, became the first swimmer since 1904 to win a medal in the 200, 400 and 1500 metres freestyle events at the same Olympic Games.
Current work
Currently he is the General Manager of the Australian Swimmers’ Association, the representative body and point of contact for national level swimmers in Australia.
He’s one of Australia’s finest champion swimmers who’s ability to overcome adversity and produce extraordinary performances is nothing short of remarkable. An engaging and remarkable speaker, Daniel always leaves audiences feeling inspired.
Swimming Achievements:
He finished second in the 1500 metres, in Barcelona 1992 and in the 200 and 400 metres he finished third, both times behind the gold medals of Danyon Loader of New Zealand.
By winning the 4 x 200 metres relay at the 1998 world championships, Kowalski, Klim, Hackett and Ian Thorpe put Australia on top of the world rankings in the event for the first time since 1956. At Sydney 2000, Kowalski and Hackett picked up gold medals for their heat swims when Thorpe, Klim, Todd Pearson and William Kirby won the final in the 4 x 200 metres relay.
Despite the challenges that injury and illness have place in Kowalski’s path, his career has seen him collect several medals and records, in individual and relay events, at world championships, Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs from 1993 until 2000.
In 2000, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to sport, while also serving as an Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Retiring from swimming in 2002, Daniel also chose beyondblue as his charity while performing on singing show It Takes Two with Kate Ceberano in 2007. As an ambassador for Beyond Blue, he is a passionate advocate for more conversations surrounding depression and what we can do it help those struggling with it. Daniel is also an advocate for gender diversity and equality.
Feedback
Daniel was the best speaker I have ever heard. The feedback from our audience was overwhelmingly positive! He exceeded our expectations! He read and responed with our young audience, with his open and down to earth nature. He shared his life experience and perfectly met the aims and ideals of our event. Daniel was also very accomidating with his time while not speaking (e.g.for photographs and autographs). I would recommend Daniel to anyone.
Daniel was an excellent speaker with the right amount of humour. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed his talk about his experience particularly in view of the fact that we were right in the middle of the Olympics in Athens. He was extremely genuine.
Daniel was excellent and a delight to have as a part of our Midsumma Festival. He was on time, genuinely enthusiastic about being here and excited by the opportunity. His presentation was excellent, his stories connected really well with the audience and he was incredibly genuine in the way he presented. He was more than happy to stay around for questions, selfies, afternoon tea and autographs post the session. We have had excellent feedback from attendees and through his words to participants we hope the discussion around LGBTQI will continue.
Thanks again for joining the Amex team Daniel and for your authenticity when sharing your stories, advice and experiences, it really resonated with our staff. Good luck with the career journey!
