SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind: 1994 World Swimmers of the Year

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 5. NEXT month, Swimming World Magazine will announce the 2006 World Swimmers of the Year. We also will be introducing this year's American, African, European and Pacific Rim Region Swimmers of the Year

SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind will travel back through the years to reminisce about previous winners throughout the next month in anticipation of this year's celebration.

Today's Rewind checks out the 1994 winners: Kieren Perkins and Samantha Riley. That year marked the first time the Australians swept the awards in the history of the World Swimmers of the Year program.

Here is an excerpt of the story written in the December issue of 1994:

Three world records accented Kieren Perkins' year in 1994, bringing his global total to eight in just over three years. The 20-year-old distance freestyle king from Australia lowered his marks in the 800 and 1500 meter freestyles in the same race at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Aug. 24th. The 800 standard dropped 6-tenths to 7:46.00, while his 1500 mark fell 1.82 seconds to 14:41.66–nearly 12 seconds faster than anyone this year. Sixteen days later at the World Championships in Rome, Perkins regained the 400 world record that he had lost at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 with a phenomenal 3:43.80–1.2 seconds faster than the previous record.

No woman had ever won both breaststroke races at the World Championships. That changed this year courtesy of Australia's Samantha Riley. She first won the 200 meter breast on the second day of competition in Rome by beating teammate and world record holder Rebecca Brown. She then followed with a win in the 100 breast, setting a 1:07.91 world record in the process. Her time erased East Germany's Silke Homer from the record books. Just two-and-a-half weeks earlier, Riley captured both breaststrokes at the Commonwealth Games. Her 200 victory in Victoria (2:25.53) turned out to be the second-fastest time in the word this year and third on the all-time performer list behind Brown and American Anita Nall.

For the complete Swimming World Magazine article on the 1994 World Swimmers of the Year, click here.

Premium online subscribers can view the entire 1994 December edition of the magazine, as well as any other edition of the magazine back to 1960. To order a premium subscription, please click here.

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