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Australian swimmer
Bill Kirby
Full name William Ashley Kirby National team Australia Born (1975-09-12 ) 12 September 1975 (age 49) Perth , Western Australia Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Weight 77 kg (170 lb) Sport Swimming Strokes Freestyle Club City of Perth Comets SC
William Ashley Kirby OAM (born 12 September 1975) is an Australian swimmer who was competitive on an international level in the nineties and early 2000s. He specialized in freestyle and butterfly and won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as part of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.[ 1]
Kirby made his debut at the 1993 Pan Pacific Championships before competing at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and the 1994 World Aquatics Championships in Rome as a butterfly swimmer. After missing selection for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, due to glandular fever , he contemplated quitting the sport.
Kirby found his way back into the national team at the 1997 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. Although he missed selection for the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in his home town, he bounced back to qualify for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, where he won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly. At the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships in Sydney, he was a member of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team (along with Michael Klim , Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett ) that lowered the world record, at the time, to 7m 08.79s. Training at the Australian Institute of Sport , he earned an Olympic berth the following year, anchoring the Australian 4 × 200 m relay team of Thorpe, Klim and Todd Pearson to another world record of 7m 07.05s.
Kirby's final international competition was at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, where along with Klim, Hackett and Thorpe, he lowered the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay world record to 7m 04.66s. That record held firm for nearly six years until United States relay team clocked in at 7m 03.24s at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne.
Kirby also collected a gold for swimming in the non-final heats of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and also swam in the finals of the 200m freestyle individual event. He retired after the championships to start a coaching career and business.
He now teaches swimming at Christ Church Grammar School , the school at which he was educated.
1908 : John Derbyshire , Paul Radmilovic , William Foster , Henry Taylor (GBR )
1912 : Cecil Healy , Malcolm Champion , Leslie Boardman , Harold Hardwick (ANZ )
1920 : Perry McGillivray , Pua Kealoha , Norman Ross , Duke Kahanamoku (USA )
1924 : Johnny Weissmuller , Wally O'Connor , Harry Glancy , Ralph Breyer (USA )
1928 : Johnny Weissmuller , Austin Clapp , Walter Laufer , George Kojac (USA )
1932 : Masanori Yusa , Yasuji Miyazaki , Takashi Yokoyama , Hisakichi Toyoda (JPN )
1936 : Masanori Yusa , Shigeo Sugiura , Shigeo Arai , Masaharu Taguchi (JPN )
1948 : Wally Ris , Jimmy McLane , Wally Wolf , Bill Smith (USA )
1952 : Wayne Moore , Bill Woolsey , Ford Konno , Jimmy McLane (USA )
1956 : Kevin O'Halloran , John Devitt , Murray Rose , Jon Henricks (AUS )
1960 : George Harrison , Dick Blick , Mike Troy , Jeff Farrell (USA )
1964 : Don Schollander , Steve Clark , Roy Saari , Gary Ilman (USA )
1968 : Don Schollander , Mark Spitz , John Nelson , Stephen Rerych (USA )
1972 : Mark Spitz , John Kinsella , Fred Tyler , Steve Genter (USA )
1976 : Mike Bruner , Bruce Furniss , John Naber , Jim Montgomery (USA )
1980 : Sergey Koplyakov , Vladimir Salnikov , Ivar Stukolkin , Andrey Krylov (URS )
1984 : Mike Heath , David Larson , Jeff Float , Bruce Hayes (USA )
1988 : Troy Dalbey , Matt Cetlinski , Doug Gjertsen , Matt Biondi (USA )
1992 : Dmitry Lepikov , Vladimir Pyshnenko , Veniamin Tayanovich , Yevgeny Sadovyi , Aleksey Kudryavtsev , Yury Mukhin (EUN )
1996 : Josh Davis , Joe Hudepohl , Brad Schumacher , Ryan Berube , Jon Olsen (USA )
2000 : Ian Thorpe , Michael Klim , Todd Pearson , Bill Kirby , Grant Hackett , Daniel Kowalski (AUS )
2004 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Peter Vanderkaay , Klete Keller , Dan Ketchum , Scott Goldblatt (USA )
2008 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Ricky Berens , Peter Vanderkaay , David Walters , Erik Vendt , Klete Keller (USA )
2012 : Ryan Lochte , Conor Dwyer , Ricky Berens , Michael Phelps , Charlie Houchin , Matt McLean , Davis Tarwater (USA )
2016 : Conor Dwyer , Townley Haas , Ryan Lochte , Michael Phelps , Clark Smith , Jack Conger , Gunnar Bentz (USA )
2020 : Tom Dean , James Guy , Matt Richards , Duncan Scott , Calum Jarvis (GBR )
2024 : James Guy , Tom Dean , Matt Richards , Duncan Scott , Jack McMillan , Kieran Bird (GBR )
1973 : Kurt Krumpholz , Robin Backhaus , Richard Klatt , Jim Montgomery (USA)
1975 : Klaus Steinbach , Werner Lampe , Hans-Joachim Geisler , Peter Nocke (FRG)
1978 : Bruce Furniss , Bill Forrester , Bobby Hackett , Rowdy Gaines (USA)
1982 : Richard Saeger , Jeff Float , Kyle Miller , Rowdy Gaines (USA)
1986 : Lars Hinneburg , Thomas Flemming , Dirk Richter , Sven Lodziewski (GDR)
1991 : Peter Sitt , Steffen Zesner , Stefan Pfeiffer , Michael Gross (GER)
1994 : Christer Wallin , Tommy Werner , Lars Frölander , Anders Holmertz (SWE)
1998 : Michael Klim , Ian Thorpe , Grant Hackett , Daniel Kowalski (AUS)
2001 : Grant Hackett , Bill Kirby , Michael Klim , Ian Thorpe (AUS)
2003 : Grant Hackett , Craig Stevens , Nicholas Sprenger , Ian Thorpe (AUS)
2005 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Peter Vanderkaay , Klete Keller (USA)
2007 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Klete Keller , Peter Vanderkaay (USA)
2009 : Michael Phelps , Ricky Berens , David Walters , Ryan Lochte (USA)
2011 : Michael Phelps , Peter Vanderkaay , Ricky Berens , Ryan Lochte (USA)
2013 : Conor Dwyer , Ryan Lochte , Charlie Houchin , Ricky Berens (USA)
2015 : Dan Wallace , Robert Renwick , Calum Jarvis , James Guy (GBR)
2017 : Stephen Milne , Nicholas Grainger , Duncan Scott , James Guy (GBR)
2019 : Clyde Lewis , Kyle Chalmers , Alexander Graham , Mack Horton (AUS)
2022 : Drew Kibler , Carson Foster , Trenton Julian , Kieran Smith (USA)
2023 : Duncan Scott , Matt Richards , Tom Dean , James Guy (GBR)
2024 : Ji Xinjie , Wang Haoyu , Pan Zhanle , Zhang Zhanshuo (CHN)
1993 : Sweden (Wallin , Werner , Frölander , Holmertz )
1995 : Australia (Klim , Dunn , Allen , Kowalski )
1997 : Australia (Klim , Hackett , Kirby , Dunn )
1999 : Netherlands (Van den Hoogenband , Kenkhuis , Zuijdweg , Wouda )
2000 : United States (Davis , Walker , Tucker , Carvin )
2002 : Australia (Pearson , Hass , Dunne , Hackett )
2004 : United States (Lochte , Carvin , Ketchum , Mortimer )
2006 : Italy (Rosolino , Pelliciari , Cassio , Magnini )
2008 : Australia (Palmer , Brits , Sprenger , Monk )
2010 : Russia (Lobintsev , Izotov , Lagunov , Sukhorukov )
2012 : United States (Lochte , Dwyer , Klueh , McLean )
2014 : United States (Dwyer , Lochte , McLean , Clary )
2016 : United States (Pieroni , Pebley , Clark , Grothe )
2018 : Brazil (Melo , Scheffer , Coelho Santos , Correia )
2021 : United States (Smith , Julian , Foster , Held )
2022 : United States (Smith , Foster , Julian , Kibler )
1985: USA (Heath , Biondi , Dillon , Oppel )
1987: USA (Dalbey , Biondi , Cetlinski , Oppel )
1989: USA (Stewart , Jorgensen , Olsen , Gjertsen )
1991: USA (Dalbey , Jorgensen , Hudepohl , Olsen )
1993: USA (Burgess , Eckerman , Taner , Davis )
1995: AUS (Allen , Housman , Dunn , Kowalski )
1997: USA (Carvin , Malchow , Taner , Davis )
1999: AUS (Thorpe , Kirby , Hackett , Klim )
2002: AUS (Hackett , Stevens , Cram , Thorpe )
2006: USA (Phelps , Lochte , Vanderkaay , Keller )
2010: USA (Phelps , Vanderkaay , Berens , Lochte )
2014: USA (Dwyer , Phelps , Lochte , McLean )
2018: USA (Seliskar , Pieroni , Apple , Haas )