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Australian Story - Season 31 Episode 1 - Sink Or Swim Michael Klim
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00:15Hello and welcome to Australian Story for 2026, our 30th anniversary year.
00:21Some of the most electrifying moments in Australian sporting history have been delivered by swimmer
00:27Michael Klim. He was unmissable for his brutally efficient swimming style, as well as his shaved
00:33head and massive frame. Michael's body brought him fame and fortune, but now it's challenging him
00:40in new and difficult ways.
00:52I've always thought that water was or is my friend.
00:59When I was competing, I wasn't scared of the fatigue or the pain. I used to love the process
01:06and I think that's just a mindset that helped me to get to the level that I needed to in
01:11swimming.
01:12Michael Klim. Oh, wow.
01:15Can you believe that? Let's go to the Michael Klim. Another goal medal.
01:19For a period in time, Michael Klim was the most dominant swimmer in the world. Untouchable.
01:26And he's punched.
01:28Intimidating to look at. Driven, focused and determined to be successful.
01:33Michael Klim goes in, touches. Michael was world record holder in 100 butterfly,
01:39in 100 freestyle, world champion in 200 freestyle.
01:43You look brilliant this morning.
01:45He brought with him like this rock star approach and he just had a presence.
01:50And you knew when Michael Klim was ready to go.
01:55His body was his temple for such a long time and that was taken away from him.
02:00He lost all the confidence he had as in himself.
02:04When your identity is so ingrained in what you can do physically and when that's removed,
02:11I thought that I wasn't going to be any value to anyone anymore.
02:21Sometimes you get to go to those dark places to find that light, you know,
02:25so he needed that self-belief again.
02:31That's what swimming helped prepare him for was, okay, I'm a fighter.
02:36And so I'm going to tackle this like I did my swimming.
02:55I first met Michelle at a local beach club here in Bali.
03:00From my point of view, there was like this amazing attraction really from the beginning.
03:06I feel like we were pretty much in love very quickly.
03:13These stairs seem steeper than last time.
03:18At that time, I had already experienced a number of neurological symptoms.
03:24So I knew there was something happening, but we weren't sure what it was.
03:33I said to her that you've got the dud version of Michael Klim and, you know, like, I don't want
03:38you to
03:38have to live with this burden.
03:42You have a lot of energy today.
03:45You know, I'm sure I could have gone, not hard basket, this is not what I signed up for,
03:49but there's just something in me that just wanted to be there for him.
03:52It's so nice.
03:53The physical degradation is one thing, but the mental health issue was probably the biggest
04:01hurdle to overcome. I couldn't see a future.
04:06It doesn't matter how much everybody wants you to get better and how much everybody wants to
04:12support you. Only he could make that choice.
04:27I had an affinity with the water, so it seems from a very early age, and I think with all
04:33the
04:34things that were changing around me, you know, I felt like I could always jump in a swimming pool
04:39and belong there. It's a very Soviet-looking hat.
04:46We were born in Poland. I was, I think, two and a half. Michael was just under one when we
04:51moved
04:52to India.
04:52I was the commercial attache in the Polish consulate in India, in Bombay, now Mumbai.
04:59He learned to swim there.
05:00This is my first ever swimming teacher, Mrs. Bettina. I spent four and a half years there.
05:07I've got the pose. I've got the hands on the hip.
05:12Came back to Poland again and through Germany, Canada, and eventually ended up in Australia in
05:191989. And that all happened by the age of 11. That's why swimming was so important in my life,
05:26that I was able to slot in wherever I went.
05:31Well, starting to get chubby here.
05:34We all love our food, Eastern European. There was a lot of schnitzels and sausages.
05:41So I had a nickname at school, which was Chunky, and then I had another one, Lumpy.
05:47He was the youngest in the squad when we first arrived, and he was, you know, catching all these
05:52older kids. And then he's like, oh, well, if you're going to call me Lumpy, that's fine. I'm still faster
05:58than you.
05:58I remember vividly meeting Michael at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre at the Age Nationals in 1992.
06:06He had a very strong accent and bleached blonde hair and obviously an incredible swimmer.
06:16At the Age Nationals I was consistently winning a number of gold medals. I think it was a moment
06:24when I was 15 and a couple coaches said, would I like to come and try out and swim at
06:30the Institute of
06:31Sport in Canberra. I was 17 when I first arrived here in Canberra and basically this was my home for
06:42nearly eight years.
06:44We were on the phone almost every day. I think he was homesick, you know. Michael is a very sensitive
06:51person and I think that for him to settle down there, it was not easy.
06:57Then it took me a little while to get, you know, the most out of the Institute, but everything that
07:03my swimming kind of taught me in a nutshell happened within these walls.
07:1018-year-old Michael Klim has been tipped as the next great Australian spritter in both freestyle and butterfly.
07:18It was before the 96 Olympic trials. I shaved my head for the first time.
07:24I think it was showing a state of mind that I was in, that I was prepared to, I guess,
07:29take on anything and I was ready for battle.
07:32In the heat this morning, one of the fines of the meet, Michael Klim, qualified fastest.
07:37Oh, Kowalski. No, Klim's got it.
07:40Klim and Kowalski both automatically qualify for Atlanta.
07:46The Olympic flame is burning tonight in Atlanta.
07:51We both raced on day one, the 200 freestyle and he went in ranked number one in the world.
07:57And I remember him touching the wall and he just missed out on the final.
08:01We was devastated for him, not for us, you know, because you come the rank number one in the world
08:07and then you don't qualify to the final.
08:11I remember going to see mum and dad and I was crying and I had a cap on and then
08:18there was this
08:19cameraman that put his camera right there and like, it's almost like, like the tears stopped instantaneously.
08:26And I still have the photo and I'm turning around and smiling.
08:30Like, I didn't want to show them that I was broken.
08:34I already started planning for that next assault, whatever that was going to be.
08:40One of the most impressive things for me about Michael was the way he rebounded from the 1996 Olympics.
08:45And in 1997, all he did was race.
08:48Now, he really dedicated his whole life to his craft.
08:53Klim stunned the swimming world last night with his time at the national championship.
08:56Michael Klim!
08:59Can you believe that?
09:01So over a short period, I developed the stroke that no one else had done up to that point.
09:08So I started swimming with straight arms.
09:10Gennady Turetsky says Klim has learned to surf his own body wake.
09:15That's why his technique maybe doesn't look beautiful, but very effective.
09:21What made Michael's straight arm freestyle impressive was not its elegance, but its brute force.
09:27The strength that it would take to power through that was just phenomenal.
09:36And I started working on my mental toughness.
09:39And, you know, I did about 150 races in one calendar year, which had never really been done before.
09:46The standout meet for Michael was the World Swimming Championships in Perth.
09:51Champion Michael Klim, now with three gold medals and two silver, has surpassed the feats of many of our swimming
09:57greats.
09:58Michael was then going to become one of the favourites leading into the Sydney Olympics.
10:06They're here, they're hyped and ready to hit the pool.
10:18I think the rivalry that we had with the Americans and the build-up was magnified this time.
10:27Again, the United States team will have all-round strength.
10:30They'll make the Australians fight hard for any chance of taking the title of leading nation.
10:36Before the 2000 Olympics, I was writing for CNN Sports Illustrated.
10:41And so I had written an article, which I maintain to this day is the most favourable article ever written
10:46about Australian swimming.
10:48And there was a throwaway line saying, look, a biased opinion, you know, the United States will rise to the
10:54nation.
10:55As we always say, we'll smash them like a guitar.
10:58It was on the front page, smash them like guitars.
11:05I don't think it was fair for me to have been pinned as the ugly American villain.
11:13There was nothing that could have prepared me for the Australian rivalry, the sensationalistic Australian media,
11:22and everything that happened.
11:24Welcome to the Sydney Aquatic Centre.
11:30The first day of competition of the Olympic Games, you know, we went into the 4x100,
11:35and people really thought that we could win this race.
11:43I mean, there's only really one competitor for us, and that was the Americans.
11:49But everyone knew the Americans had never been beaten before.
11:52Five years out from the Olympic Games, we had a plan that the men could win this race.
11:59The plan would only work if we would get the lead in the first leg.
12:04And Michael was our fastest swimmer, and so he was the only person in the team that could do that.
12:11I was the most clear-headed I've ever felt on the blocks.
12:15Take your last.
12:17I just felt so great.
12:19Michael Klim, the early leader, is out by about half a body length already.
12:23That swim was just absolutely amazing.
12:25But look at Michael Klim, powering down to the wall.
12:28And when he touched the wall, Dad just screamed, he goes, world record!
12:31It was the most manic crowd I've ever seen at any sporting event in my entire life cheering for
12:38Australia and against us.
12:40There's still three legs to go, and by the time I looked, the Americans were back up on level par.
12:46This is going to be one heck of a race.
12:49I was given the last leg.
12:51Gary Hall Jr. from Ian Thorne, battling it out down the pool.
12:55And I remember just before the 50-meter mark, having a look at where Gary was.
13:00Paul is in front.
13:02And just being like, wow, he's actually a long way ahead of me.
13:06They've got about 15 meters to swim.
13:17We didn't fail.
13:19Australia was just right south that night.
13:21And Michael Klim definitely led the way.
13:25You know, to this day, for me, that swim is still the best swim I've ever done.
13:33Michael Klim gave him the lead.
13:35So there were air guitars.
13:37Not planned, not in character for any of us, really.
13:42But just, yeah, you're caught up in a moment.
13:45Well, Ruth is lifting up this stadium!
13:48Nobody could hear each other.
13:50There was just so much joy.
13:52And everybody was like, we were hugging random.
13:55It was quite amazing.
13:57Yeah, it was a very special evening.
14:00Michael broke the world record on night one.
14:03And then when it comes to the individual of the 100 freestyle, he comes fourth.
14:09Gary ended up having the last laugh, though.
14:11He was the one who touched me out for bronze by one one-hundredth of a second.
14:18That was the skin of my tears.
14:19It was that bronze medal.
14:21Head a bit higher, please, Michael.
14:23Good, yeah, nice.
14:25Even though I didn't have that individual success, you know, I had that enormous exposure through
14:31the relays.
14:32Good.
14:34I had great support from corporates and sponsors and, you know, things were going pretty well.
14:41Got back in the pool and started getting ready for the world championships.
14:44And I was swimming faster than I have ever swum before.
14:49Michael Klim was chasing a swag of medals at the world championships.
14:53But an ankle injury suffered during a game of basketball ruined his campaign.
14:58That was the first kind of turning point in my career that things weren't going as smoothly
15:05and wouldn't go as smoothly into the future.
15:08His body, you get the sense, was starting to break down.
15:13You know, shoulder injuries, back.
15:16When one of the world's best swimmers has to kneel instead of sit, his injury must be severe.
15:22But like Michael always did, he just attacked his rehab, his recovery,
15:26just trying to get back to the best he could possibly be.
15:34I managed to sneak onto the Athens relay teams.
15:38We came second in the 4x2 and we didn't medal in the 4x1.
15:44So four years later, we went from winning gold to missing out on the podium.
15:49To be honest, at that point, I started to have these emotions towards the sport that I've never
15:58felt before. Like I started being really resentful towards my body.
16:03Mentally, I still had the same drive.
16:05And it was just that physically, I wasn't always able to do the work required.
16:13When I came back from Athens, I was actually in the face of my amendsware at the time.
16:18And that was when I met Lindy.
16:21We had Stella pretty soon after that.
16:24And then we got married. And so, yeah, life changed pretty quickly.
16:30Two-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Klim has announced his retirement from swimming.
16:36Retirement was something that he had to do, I think, just for his body to rest and
16:41having a child as well. Other things take over.
16:48Michael obviously excelled in the pool, but he is very entrepreneurial.
16:54He's developed a range of skincare products distributed in 12 countries.
16:58My life after sport was based on that identity of the sprint freestyler, this, you know,
17:04real super powerful kind of fast, you know, athlete with a shaved head. The whole company was based in
17:10Melbourne. But we decided that we'll go away and spend some time together as a family.
17:21Lindy's heritage is Balinese, so Bali was obviously the number one choice.
17:28But it was initially just an extended holiday.
17:33So I was five when I moved to Bali because, Frankie, you just...
17:37That's like a couple of months.
17:38Yeah, you were six months old.
17:39Yeah.
17:40I loved growing up in Bali. I don't think I would have had it any other way.
17:47I was commuting back and forth to Australia, showing up at every sales meeting and being there for
17:53every PR opportunity. I definitely felt pressure from a business standpoint and to make sure that,
18:01you know, I was spending time with the kids, it was hard.
18:05Well, after a year of speculation, Olympic swimmer Michael Klim and his model wife,
18:09Lindy, have confirmed their separation.
18:11I think there was a period in the lead up to the divorce that we did grow apart.
18:18We had different priorities and we wanted different things out of life, really. So,
18:25yeah, we officially got divorced in 2016.
18:31And then I ended up parting ways with the company completely.
18:36And that was a difficult time because obviously you start a business, it's your baby.
18:41So, there was so many changes.
18:50In 2019, I started getting a lot of physical symptoms. There was tingling in my shins and quads.
19:00Sometimes it felt like someone was pouring warm water down my thighs.
19:09But the most visible and most ones that affected me the most was the lack of function and the lack
19:18of strength of being able to move my toes and or to, you know, do calf raises.
19:25To the best of your ability, take your weight to the right.
19:29So, I had some nerve and muscle biopsies and nerve conduction studies, a number of blood tests.
19:35And turn around for me.
19:36The brightest thing that happened in that bad period is obviously I met Michelle.
19:43He was so open about what he was going through, even though we didn't realise at the time exactly
19:49what it was. I just assumed that it was something that was happening, but was fixable and mendable.
19:56At the end of 2019, Michael was going to KL for work and he had called me and he was
20:02just in a panic,
20:03going, I can't walk. I can't get up. I'm on the floor in the terminal and I can't stand up.
20:08And he was just so distressed.
20:11Within a year, you know, I lost pretty much all the muscles in my right leg, right calf.
20:17And just when you're seeing your muscles wasting away in front of your eyes, no matter how many exercises
20:23you do, that was kind of a sign that there was something happening.
20:29Michael would be walking around in the house with the kids and I at home and we'd just hear this
20:34thud, like, and we'd just go, what is that? And we'd realise Michael has fallen over.
20:39And that was starting to happen a lot more.
20:41We were all just pretty scared. I think he was obviously the most scared because he had no idea,
20:48but then us on the sidelines not being able to communicate what was happening, all of it was just pretty
20:52full on.
20:53So today's a big day. Had a couple of tests already, the x-rays and CT, heading down for
21:02the MRI in a minute. But for the first time, I kind of felt like
21:12the future is a little bit unknown for me at the moment, which is a bit confronting.
21:20The diagnosis came, I guess, officially when I had a back operation in 2020. And that's when
21:28sort of our doctors officially gave us the diagnosis of CIDP. I had no idea what it was,
21:35never heard of it before. It's autoimmune derived, but the symptoms are neurological.
21:42CIDP stands for chronic inflammatory demyelating polyneuropathy. And simply put,
21:50it's an autoimmune condition where the body's attacking the peripheral nerves.
22:00We still don't know why this occurs. We also don't have a cure. So there was this huge uncertainty
22:10from my standpoint in terms of the future.
22:14I think we struggled mentally, which was the worst situation which we could experience.
22:21Seeing your son depressed, you know, and completely without belief that anything can be better.
22:31I was avoiding the emotions of grief and sadness and resentment and, you know, I was masking it
22:40still with painkillers and alcohol. I think the hardest is when you can't help them, it's out of your control.
22:47You can only be there for them and you can just continue to be supportive. Yeah, that's, I wish some
22:57days I'm like, I wish it was me. Why is it him? It was definitely a grieving process of a
23:05loss of identity
23:06from who he was to where he was going. It was just a really, really hard time for everybody.
23:17I think there was a period where, you know, physically I changed so much. Like my legs kind of faded
23:25away.
23:26My calf muscles were gone. I was using a walking stick. I started putting on weight from medication
23:33and I started saying no to a lot of opportunities. I think he had a moment where somebody yelled out,
23:41said, oh, Clemmie, are you drunk? And, you know, I think he realised he's just going to have to come
23:49out and say, you know, I'm, I'm unwell. So what has happened to your legs?
23:53Basically, I've lost sensation in both of my feet. When he put his situation publicly,
24:01it was much better. It was like a medicine for him. I give myself about an hour a day to
24:07feel sorry
24:07and angry and frustrated and then move on with the rest of life. And I just can't imagine that relief
24:14when he was finally able to talk about it and not worry what people are going to think and going
24:19to
24:19say, and I think people really admire and respect him even more now.
24:29G'day. How are you going? I'm, I'm booked in for an infusion today.
24:33Yeah, that's okay. CIDP can progress throughout your whole body. For me,
24:38it's stopped at my knees at this point. My hands have been unaffected. Touch wood.
24:45The biggest gains, I think, have come from lifestyle changes and working on myself,
24:52you know, from my mental health point of view. And, you know, we found a pretty simple routine,
24:57which keeps me really stable. Yeah, IVRG is intravenous immunoglobulin, which really helps
25:08inflammation. It takes 32 donors for one of my infusions for one day. So I'm doing two days in
25:16a row, which is 64 donations for me to have my treatment every six weeks. So I come here with
25:23a huge sense of gratitude to those donors.
25:28I've won gold for my country. Michael has been part of the Lifeblood family for the last three
25:36years as an ambassador. An autoimmune disorder took everything from me. Plasma donors helped me get
25:44it back. We were keen to raise education about plasma as a blood product. Every day over 1,000
25:52Australians rely on plasma. It's one of the most successful advertising campaigns we've run.
25:59I needed things like that to kind of ignite that fire and that sense of purpose.
26:15So yeah, we set up the Klim Foundation in 2024. I've watched him as he has realised the opportunity
26:24there is to educate people about CIDP. And Michelle, she's an important part of that story too. And it's
26:31almost like they've signed up for this journey together. I was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory
26:39demelinating polyneuropathy and I'm still getting that right. We felt that through our experience,
26:43our network, we can create a little bit of hope and shine some light on this kind of very rare
26:51and
26:51unpredictable condition.
26:56You guys ready? Goggles on, cap on. Nice and smooth. Let's work on body position off each wall. Okay, ready?
27:04Up!
27:06I definitely saw the shift in him that he started to feel less sorry for himself and prioritise the future.
27:15That freestyle looks really good. Let's try to just rotate a little bit more, okay?
27:19And I think now where he is, is amazing. And this is kind of like the person I feel like
27:25he was when I met him. All right, 15 metres fast. You know, grip the lid off the blocks,
27:31throw your arms back. I've got my drive back. I'm pool deck, I'm coaching, I'm travelling a lot.
27:38Thank you, Mum. Hut!
27:42I just think Dad has handled it in such a good way of being able to turn such a negative
27:47into
27:48a positive and has just inspired so many other people. Um, and to be at such a high level of
27:55something and get down to the bottom and now bring himself all the way back up is just so impressive.
28:05Wow. My perception of success maybe initially was gold medals, world records, then kind of
28:14financial success. And then I realised actually recently that success has got really nothing to
28:21do with, with, you know, your bank account. She doesn't stop.
28:27It is giving him a completely fresh outlook on how he sees himself and how the rest of the world
28:35will
28:35see him from here on out. I feel like now I'm no less of a person or even actually, to
28:43be honest,
28:44probably a fuller person because of what I've been through. I never thought I'd say that.
28:52I think that ego had to, had to go and now, um, obviously I'm not a hundred percent comfortable
28:58walking there for it, but if someone gets a glimpse of these beautiful toes, it's their lucky day.
29:12And then random things that appear on the table, like, like the butterscotch biscuits with sushi.
29:21And the avocado. Next to the avocado. Next to the MSG sauce. Next to the soup. And then cold cuts.
29:33So that's –
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