He made his debut at the 1976 Australian Championships and promptly won the 200 m freestyle and backstroke events to win selection for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal at the age of 16.

Kerry set Australian records while in the United States, but his international career hit trouble when he was expelled from the 1978 Commonwealth Games team for breaking a curfew.

Kerry returned to Australia in 1980 for the national championships and gained selection for the Moscow Olympics by winning the backstroke double.

Kerry declined financial inducements and resisted political pressure from the Australian Government to boycott the Olympics in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

[1] Kerry grew up participating in a wide range of sports, representing Wollongong High School in tennis, athletics and swimming.

In 1974, Kerry competed in the Australian Age Championships in freestyle, before moving north to train with John Rigby in Brisbane, Queensland in the following year.

[6] Kerry combined with Paul Jarvie, Neil Rogers and Peter Coughlan in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, placing sixth.

[7] Kerry successfully defended his 200 m backstroke national title in 1977, but the time was more than four seconds slower than his effort in the previous year.

He combined with his New South Wales teammates to win all three relays, again in times substantially slower than in the preceding Olympic year.

The performances earned him selection for the Australian team for the Coca-Cola Meet in London, but Kerry felt that he lacked motivation after the Olympics.

Based on the times that he recorded for Indiana, Kerry was named in the Australian squad for the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada.

[7] However, his international career appeared to be in disarray when along with two teammates, Tonelli and Joe Dixon, he was expelled from the Australian team for breaking a curfew on American Independence Day during a training camp in Honolulu, Hawaii.

[13] In the aftermath of the incident, Tonelli appeared on Australian television, strongly denying rumours that he had been involved in a drug-fuelled orgy with teammates.

Supporters in Australia, including future Prime Minister Bob Hawke, launched a petition for the reinstatement of the trio, which garnered thousands of signatures, but to no avail.

Over time, Kerry became increasingly discontented with Counsilman, who he felt was losing focus and becoming preoccupied with various business commitments and an attempt to swim across the English Channel.

[15] However, another obstacle arose with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western world, led by the United States.

With the Americans and many other western swimmers absent, Australian officials were confident that their three entrants in the 100 m backstroke, Kerry, Tonelli and Glenn Patching, would all make the final and win medals.

[18] Kerry bounced back in the 200 m backstroke and won his heat to qualify third-fastest,[19] before claiming bronze in a time of 2 m 3.14 s behind the Hungarian duo of Sándor Wladár and Zoltán Verrasztó.

[11] He edged out the Soviet Union's Vladimir Shemetov by 0.34 s, becoming the first Australian to win a medal in an individual backstroke event since David Theile in 1960.

[15][19] In the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, he combined with Tonelli, Graeme Brewer and Ron McKeon as Australia came seventh after qualifying fourth.

The host's team included the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, and their butterflyer had come fifth; their freestyler would later place fourth.

The British had Duncan Goodhew, the breaststroke gold medallist, while Sweden's butterflyer and backstroker had won their respective events and their freestyle swimmer would come second in the 100 m.[21] Australia's team paled in comparison on paper.

[15][16] Adding to the pressure was the fact that Australia won no gold medals at the 1976 Olympics in any sport, and were yet to win in Moscow, so the public were still awaiting their first victory since Munich in 1972.

He asked his teammates to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s. Tonelli named the foursome as the Quietly Confident Quartet, and they exhibited a quiet confidence as they lined up for the race.

He was asked to return for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, so he made a comeback, but did only two weeks of solid training and missed selection, failing to win either backstroke event.

[15] He returned to Australia in 1984 and after training in Brisbane, he was selected for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles despite winning neither backstroke event at the Australian Championships.

[28] In the medley relay, Kerry and Evans joined Glenn Buchanan and Mark Stockwell, who swam the butterfly and freestyle respectively.

[31] Tonelli reported that Kerry was busy preening himself just before the start of their Olympic-winning relay performance, claiming that although Australia was unlikely to win the race, he needed to look good because a prospective employer might be watching.