Grant Hackett spreading the learn-to-swim message.
When Grant Hackett hung up his green and gold in 2008 the triple Olympic gold medallist retired at the top of his sport. Hailed as one of the world’s greatest distance swimmers and with a string of awards and world records to his credit he retired with very little left to accomplish in the pool.
But retirement hasn’t managed to slow him down. The former Olympian sits down with Essential Kids to chat about fatherhood, life after swimming and his determination to help eradicate childhood drowning in Australia.
Since becoming a father in 2009 life has changed dramatically for Grant Hackett. While he still has a passion for his sport one of his greatest challenges these days comes in the form of his adorable two-year-old twins, Charlize and Jagger, with wife Candice Alley.
Grant Hackett's wife Candice Alley with their twins, Charlize and Jagger.
Hackett laughs as he admits that sleep deprivation has been the hardest adjustment he has had to make since the twins came along.
“Like most parents with twins. You are balancing so many balls in life, when you can’t sleep because one wakes up and then they seem to tag team and the other wakes up, I think that’s probably the most challenging thing,” he says.
The past two years with the twins may have been a sleepless blur but Hackett is adamant that his top priority is being there for his kids as they grow up.
“I think it is just a wonderful experience becoming a parent. The twins just turned two and you can see how fast they are growing. You just really want to make sure that every moment that you get with them that you enjoy and don’t take for granted because I can see how it just flies by.”
But like all working parents he knows how hard it can be to get the balance between work and family right.
“I think balance for most people these days is a constant challenge. You are conflicted, you are trying to give a life of opportunity to your children and you obviously have to work for that because it doesn’t come for free. And at the same time you are trying to spend time with them and I think that you are always rebalancing constantly.”
Keeping the balance is made a lot easier for Hackett by his wife Candice. He is clearly thankful that he has her to partner with in raising the kids, even if he likes to takes the pressure off her by acting like a kid himself.
“My wife does such a remarkable job with our twins. When you come home from work and she is obviously tired and exhausted but they are still very active I get in there and act like a big kid myself,” he says proudly. “Acting like a bit of an idiot to make them laugh is something that I am particularly talented at.”
He might be good at keeping the kids entertained but when it comes to discipline he is the first to admit that he gives them a little more leeway then he should, especially at bedtime.
“I remember when my wife was away one night I think it was about nine o’clock and she phoned and asked if they were in bed - I think she could probably hear them in the background,” he says with a laugh. “When they want to stay up I am a bit of a softie.”
While Hackett was expecting twins to be a lot of hard work – something he is used to in a different capacity – he wasn’t expecting them to be quite so different from each other.
"To think that two people conceived, born and experiencing most things at the same time can be so different is quite remarkable. That to me is the most surprising thing. They get along quite well but they are polar opposites in so many ways,” he says.
While they may be different from each other he is very aware that they have inherited some of his own character traits.
“I guess I am quite a competitive, determined person and I can see that in our little girl a lot. When she can’t do something you can see that she gets frustrated and just really focuses on it. Candice is like, ‘that is definitely from your genes!’” he says through a widening smile.
When he isn’t chasing his kids around with Candice, he is fulfilling his other passion – helping kids learn to swim.
Hackett is determined to fight the staggering number of preventable childhood drownings in Australia and as an ambassador for the Swimkids initiative he is on his way to seeing it become a reality.
“Next year alone we want to teach 10,000 kids to learn how to swim and we encourage that through the Royal Life Saving Society and Uncle Tobys. We have been doing it for three years now but the stats of how many kids between the ages of one and fifteen actually drown is quite alarming,” he says.
The Swimkids program encourages people to learn to swim even if they haven’t got the financial resources available to afford lessons. The Uncle Tobys' Swimkids website features Hackett in a number of online tutorials giving swimming tips to parents on how they can teach their kids to swim as well as offering other resources that will help keep kids safe around water.
Hackett has had his own children in the water since they were seven-weeks-old and he is insistent when it comes to the importance of teaching kids to swim.
“I just think that it is absolutely paramount for the lifestyle we have here in Australia [to be able to swim] particularly the beaches and the pools and places that people don’t think about like the dams and lakes. So many people get into trouble and don’t know how to swim, so it’s creating awareness with the parents to just act upon it because you just don’t want to be one of those statistics,” he urges.
It is clear Hackett is passionate about helping kids stay safe around the water while they discover a love for the sport that made him great and with a successful swimming career behind him, a young family to look after and a nation of kids to inspire, the future couldn’t look better for Grant Hackett.
