Fallen Olympic swimmer Scott Miller is ‘looking a million dollars’ as he rebuilds his life after serving more than three years in prison for his role in a meth distribution ring.
Miller, the 100m butterfly silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has deliberately stayed out of the public eye since he was released from jail on June 14.
The 49-year-old was once a media favourite during his brief marriage to television presenter Charlotte Dawson, who took her own life a decade ago, but has rarely been photographed unless outside court in recent years.
Miller has continually struggled since his retirement from competitive swimming and his weight ballooned as he abandoned a healthy lifestyle and intensive physical training.
Pictures of a flabby Miller being arrested in February 2021 showed the onetime Cleo Bachelor of the Year slumped in a chair, shirtless and shoeless, with a roll of fat spilling over his jeans.
He spent much of his time in custody at the maximum-security Hunter Correctional Centre in Cessnock, 160km north of Sydney, where he ran the prison gym.
Miller’s longtime lawyer Greg Goold said his client was in ‘great shape mentally and physically’ and appeared to have benefited from his years in prison.
‘He’s come out of jail refreshed and invigorated and he’s looking to get on with his life,’ Mr Goold said.
Fallen Olympic swimmer Scott Miller is ‘looking a million dollars’ as he rebuilds his life after serving more than three years in prison for his role in a meth distribution ring. He is pictured in 1996, the year he won silver in the 100m butterfly at the Atlanta Olympics
‘He’s looking a million dollars. He looks like he’d be ready to go in the Olympics.’
Miller’s role as ‘gym sweeper’ behind bars included running fitness programs for other inmates while he took the opportunity to get himself fit.
‘He was also head of the peer mentor program and they said they were sad to lose him,’ Mr Good said.
‘Honestly, he looks like he’s ready to swim the 100m butterfly in record time for his age at the World Masters.’
Daily Mail Australia understands Miller, who operated a small trucking company before his stint in prison, is planning to work in transport and supply logistics.
He has also expressed an interest in appearing on SAS Australia, the recently cancelled reality program sometimes used by disgraced celebrities to rehabilitate their image.
Miller was jailed in November 2022 for a minimum three years, backdated to the time of his arrest.
Pictures of a flabby Miller being arrested in February 2021 showed the onetime Cleo Bachelor of the Year slumped in a chair, shirtless and shoeless, with a roll of fat spilling over his jeans
He had pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine, supplying a commercial quantity of heroin, dealing with the proceeds of crime and participating in a criminal group.
Miller attributed his descent into supplying meth to ‘post elite competition depression’ and his own long-term drug abuse.
With three bumbling accomplices, Miller was involved in a plan to drive 4kg of meth worth $2.2million across NSW which ended in their inevitable apprehension.
The entire shambolic scheme had no chance of success, with police watching, listening to and tracking every movement of the drugs from start to finish.
Miller drove the meth about 280km from Sydney to Yass in January 2021 and handed over the consignment for transport to Albury.
But the drugs were ditched more than 200km further south after two incompetent mules were involved in a high-speed pursuit with highway patrol officers.
A search warrant was executed on Miller’s apartment at Rozelle in Sydney’s inner-west a month after the failed drug run.
Miller told a sentencing hearing he was introduced to drugs through his relationship with TV presenter Charlotte Dawson and he had spiralled into addiction.
Police found 796.8 grams of heroin and $2,175 cash inside a walk-in wardrobe, $500 in a satchel, and $69,870 in a safe.
While in custody, Miller was charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of meth and directing a criminal group between April and October 2020 over another drug ring.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May this year to four years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 months – time he had already served.
At his sentencing hearing for those offences Miller said he was introduced to drugs through his relationship with Dawson and he had spiralled into addiction.
‘Charlotte was engaged in the fashion and media industry and it was in the context of my exposure to the lifestyle that my wife’s social and employment connections afforded that I was first introduced to personal drug use,’ Miller wrote in an affidavit.
‘Whilst it was not significant I realise in retrospect that it was [the] start on my long and disastrous involvement with drug abuse.’
Mr Goold had submitted his client suffered from depression common to elite athletes when they can no longer compete at the highest level.
Miller and Dawson married in 1999, split a year later, and she took her life aged 47 the day after his 39th birthday.
The State Parole Authority approved Miller’s release on June 14 and he walked out of prison that afternoon.
