Kieren Perkins was catching some fresh air a few weeks ago when his solitude was rudely interrupted.

"We saw him there and I threw the football at him," Grant Hackett said with a chuckle.

"Nothing's changed. I missed him, unfortunately."

It was a moment of levity that probably wouldn't have happened even 10 years ago.

There was certainly no room for any mucking around at the Sydney Games, when Hackett beat Perkins in the 1500m freestyle final to realise his swimming destiny.

Perkins was the two-time defending Olympic champion and the sentimental favourite.

Hackett was 20, on the rise and had not lost a 1500m event in four years.

He'd grown up idolising Perkins, even having the older swimmer's PBs stuck on his bedroom wall.

Perkins was renowned for his icy focus and Hackett called their relationship "frosty".

It became clear that others also had a cool reaction to Hackett's heir apparent status.

At the Olympic trials, Hackett was unnerved as the crowd chanted "Perkins, Perkins, Perkins".

"You would think you'd get a little bit of home support," he said.

"I had a journalist who wrote that I may as well be an American competing at these Olympics.

"That is the ultimate slap in the face - I take pride in where I come from. My grandfather fought on the Kokoda Trail."

Then ahead of the Olympics, Hackett was hit with a virus that nearly derailed his Sydney campaign.

He was well below his best in the shorter events.

So it came down to the 1500m, with the whole country watching.

This time, when Hackett walked out onto the pool deck as the third-fastest qualifier, the chant was "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie".

"It wasn't Hackett, it wasn't Perkins and that made me feel fantastic," he said.

And while Hackett wasn't physically 100 per cent, this was his sort of situation.

Hackett was that rarest and most impressive of sporting beasts - a person who instinctively thrived under pressure.

"It's weird and I don't know why that is," he said.

"Standing behind the blocks, I loved staring down the lane. I just thought 'this is it, this is it'."

Hackett dominated the final, beating Perkins by five seconds.

Perkins told him "you deserve this" immediately after they finished.

Plenty has happened since, with Hackett going through some well-publicised personal dramas.

He and Perkins live near that Melbourne park and an errant football aside, they have had a much stronger relationship for around a decade.

"Funnily enough, we get along quite well now," Hackett said.

"We relate quite easily, but back then it wasn't the case at all."

Australian Associated Press