Even though he was an individual sportsman, he could not have achieved what he had in swimming without the support of his family and community.
In his early days this involved fund-raising, including his mother making "something like 500 dozen lamingtons and 500 dozen cheese rolls".
Such support was on top of that provided by his coach, the late Duncan Laing, and teachers, some of whom remembered him sleeping in class after early-morning training.
It was important to have at least one teacher with a soft spot for you, which was not always easy for those involved in a sport practised outside the school.
He paid particular tribute to then-deputy principal at Bayfield, Margaret Herron, who would allow him and another swimmer to take the period off before lunch to sleep as long as they returned for afternoon classes.
As his English teacher, she also arranged for him to complete an assignment on Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One because he did not have time to read the set class text.
He urged pupils to push themselves slightly beyond their comfort zones.
Although he had considered himself at "the bottom of the scale in terms of rhythm" he had learned much from his experience on the television show Dancing with the Stars.
Last year, he had tried his hand at painting.
It was much better to be the person who tried something, even if you found you did not like it, than it was to be someone who did not try anything new, he said.
