Bill Kirby

Personal information
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
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	City of Perth Comets SC
Medal record Men's swimming RepresentingAustralia Olympic Games 2000 Sydney 4×200 m freestyle World Championships (LC) 2001 Fukuoka 4×200 m freestyle World Championships (SC) 1997 Gothenburg 4×200 m freestyle Pan Pacific Championships 1999 Sydney 4×200 m freestyle Commonwealth Games 1998 Kuala Lumpur 200 m butterfly

William Ashley KirbyOAM (born 12 September 1975) is an Australian swimmer who was competitive on an international level in the nineties and early 2000s. He specialized infreestyle andbutterfly and won a gold medal at the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as part of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team. He was anAustralian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.^[1]

Kirby made his debut at the1993 Pan Pacific Championships before competing at the1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and the1994 World Aquatics Championships in Rome as a butterfly swimmer. After missing selection for the1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, due toglandular fever, he contemplated quitting the sport.

Kirby found his way back into the national team at the1997 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. Although he missed selection for the1998 World Aquatics Championships in his home town, he bounced back to qualify for the1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, where he won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly. At the1999 Pan Pacific Championships in Sydney, he was a member of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team (along withMichael Klim,Ian Thorpe andGrant Hackett) that lowered the world record, at the time, to 7m 08.79s. Training at theAustralian Institute of Sport, he earned an Olympic berth the following year, anchoring the Australian 4 × 200 m relay team of Thorpe, Klim andTodd Pearson to another world record of 7m 07.05s.

Kirby's final international competition was at the2001 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 atChrist Church Grammar School, the school at which he was educated.

• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
• World record progression 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay

• ABC profile
• Bill Kirby retires

• 1975 births
• Living people
• Australian male freestyle swimmers
• Swimmers from Perth, Western Australia
• Olympic swimmers for Australia
• Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• World record setters in swimming
• Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia
• People educated at Christ Church Grammar School
• Olympic gold medalists for Australia
• World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
• Australian Institute of Sport swimmers
• Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
• Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists in swimming
• Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming
• Swimmers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
• Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
• Australian male butterfly swimmers
• 20th-century Australian sportsmen
• 21st-century Australian sportsmen
• Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
• Sportsmen from Western Australia

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