Outside Smoke At The Olympics

As age group swimmers growing up, we all shared the common dislike of racing in an outside lane — be it Lane 1, Lane 6, Lane 8, or Lane 10, depending on the size of the pool. Swimming in the gutter lane is a rough experience: not only is it nearly impossible to see the rest of the field, but the waves in the outside lane can be more turbulent, making things uncomfortable.

But there are few things in swimming that feel more satisfying than winning your race or heat from an outside lane. As swimmers, we refer to this as the “outside smoke” — the swimming version of an underdog claiming the win against all odds.

In fact, the outside smoke has happened a number of times on the Olympic stage — and, in particular, in several Olympic finals with gold medals on the line. Let’s take a look at a few instances in recent memory where a swimmer from either Lane 1 or Lane 8 shocked the world to claim a historic Olympic gold.

Kieren Perkins, Men’s 1500 Freestyle (1996)

Perkins is easily one of the most decorated long-distance freestylers in history, but his form in 1996 was far from his best. A string of misfortunes, including illness and injury, contributed to him barely even making the Australian Olympic team that year, despite him being both the world record and Olympic record holder at the time.

Perkins struggled to even make the Olympic final in Atlanta, suffering from stomach cramping that saw him sneak into the top-eight by a mere 23 one-hundredths of a second, finishing the race in a time nearly 40 seconds off his world record pace. As the defending Olympic champion from Barcelona, the pressure was immense, though it seemed improbable that Perkins would be able to repeat his feat from four years ago.

What followed was one of the most inspiring feats of athleticism, grit, and sheer determination in Olympic history. Swimming out of Lane 8 and with all the doubters already counting him out — in fact, he wasn’t even regarded as the fastest Australian in the field — Perkins emphatically led the race from start to finish, being the only swimmer to touch in under 15 minutes and asserting his spot amongst the greats.

Four years later, he would nearly defend his Olympic title in the 1500 again on home soil — earning silver in a hard-fought race — but his outside smoke at the 1996 Olympics stands tall above the rest. Fun fact: Perkins is just one of three men to have medalled in the 1500 freestyle three times at the Olympics — the others being fellow Aussies Frank Beaurepaire and Grant Hackett.

USA, Men’s 4×00 Medley Relay (2021)

A relay performance that would yield a world record which still stands today (as of May 2025) had its origins from Lane 1 in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. In fact, this performance wiped out one of the few supersuited records from 2009 that still remained on the books — and by a considerable margin of half a second. Yet this performance nearly didn’t even have an opportunity to take place.

In the morning relay heats, Team USA almost suffered a major scare, barely squeaking into the medley relay final by just 0.33 seconds and finding themselves in an odd position — on the outside of the field looking in. But perhaps the result was not much of a surprise, especially when you consider the fact that Team USA was just one of two teams in the field to completely swap out all four swimmers for the gold medal race (the other team being Russia).

The British quartet, swimming out of Lane 5, gave the U.S. a strong challenge — with Adam Peaty throwing down the fastest breaststroke split in history — but the American quartet jumped out to a considerable lead, propelled by Caeleb Dressel’s fastest butterfly split ever. They shattered the world record, becoming the first ever under 3:27 and extending the Americans’ unbeaten streak in the medley relay at the Olympics.

*Spoiler: that streak would come to an end just three years later in Paris, but that’s for another time…

Ahmed Hafnaoui, Men’s 400 Freestyle (2021)

Hafnaoui’s recent performance at the Tokyo Olympics is perhaps one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic history. In fact, coming in as the 16th seed in the event, he is one of the lowest seeds to ever win Olympic gold in the history of the sport.

In the heats, Hafnaoui scraped a few tenths off of his personal best to qualify 8th, squeezing into the Olympic final by a mere 0.14 seconds. Racing out of Lane 8 in the final, Hafnauoi turned the blinders on, making his way through to the front of the field for most of the race before overtaking all the pre-race favorites on the final lap.

When it was all said and done, Hafnaoui had stunned the swimming world, winning the gold medal by a margin of just 0.16 seconds — one of the slimmest margins of victory ever in a 400 freestyle Olympic final. In doing so, he had taken off nearly 3 seconds from his entry time — a

personal best that he had set just a month prior to the Olympic Games. He had also become the first swimmer from Africa to win the 400 freestyle and just the second swimmer from Tunisia to become an Olympic champion (the other being Tunisian legend Oussama Mellouli).

Dmitriy Balandin, Men’s 200 Breaststroke (2016)

Balandin is the recipient of Kazakhstan’s only Olympic swimming medal (of any color), and he achieved it in style — outside-smoking a field that comprised some of the most elite swimmers to ever compete in the 200 breaststroke. His margin of victory, 0.07 seconds, stands as the slimmest winning margin in the history of the event at the Olympics.

Balandin first made a huge statement at the 2014 Asian Games, sweeping all three breaststroke distances and doing so with meet records in all of his wins. At the Rio Olympics, he comfortably made his way into the Olympic final, albeit qualifying in 8th place — since there was a considerable margin between him and the 9th place swimmer out of the semifinals.

With the field highlighted by both former and future world record holders, Balandin surged from behind to absolutely stun the field, claiming Olympic glory from Lane 8 in a tightly-bunched race. This was a historically competitive Olympic final: in fact, the podium was separated by 0.24 seconds, and the top six was separated by 0.41 seconds.

Luo Xuejuan, Women’s 100 Breaststroke (2004)

A two-time defending world champion in the 50 and 100 breaststroke distances, Luo came into the Athens Olympics as one of the big favorites in the 100m breaststroke. Incredibly, however, she nearly found herself out of the running in the semifinals, qualifying in 7th and coming within half a second of missing out on the Olympic final entirely.

This did little to hamper Luo’s pursuit of an Olympic title, however. Swimming out of Lane 1, Luo would dominate the opposition, leading the race from start to finish. She established a new Olympic record in the process and was the only swimmer in the field to dip under 1:07 — a victory that stunned the Australian and American favorites swimming in the middle of the pool.

Unfortunately, Luo’s career was cut short due to a number of injuries and a lingering heart condition, preventing her from defending her Olympic title at her home Olympic Games in 2008. She did, however, make an appearance at the Beijing Games as the second torchbearer of the 2008 Olympics torch relay, making her the first torchbearer for the host country that year.

Final Thoughts

Perhaps these moments can serve as a source of inspiration for us: no matter the circumstances, no matter what lane we find ourselves lined up behind, and no matter what your seed may be in the heat, you always have a fighting chance to pull the rabbit out of the hat and surprise the field (and yourself).

And as swimmers and fans of the sport, we should also take the time to appreciate the rarity and beauty of an outside-smoke because they for sure do not happen very often, and certainly very rarely at swimming’s largest stage.