Pools, parties, prostitution, prison: The Scott Miller story

And for 25 years it weighed Australian Olympian Scott Miller down. Drugs and bad decisions destroyed his life until a dramatic arrest and incarceration saved it.

When Miller went to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 as a 21-year-old, the weight of a nation was on his ample shoulders.

He would win silver, beaten for gold in controversial circumstances by Russian Denis Pankratov, who swam more than a third of the race underwater, to break the only individual men's world record in a final at the meet.

Shattered, Miller threw the silver medal in the bin, only to have it retrieved by his mother, Jenny.

The Australian saw the silver as "failure" and it triggered a spiral that would last decades, culminating in what is one of the biggest falls from grace in Australian sporting history.

Miller went from Olympian and 90s heart-throb as Cleo magazine's Bachelor of the Year to convicted drug supplier.

Miller himself acknowledges the monumental level of his dive from the dais.

"It's up there," Miller told the ABC News Documentary Deep End.

"I don't know what the straw that broke me was but there was a lot of shit going on there.

Scott Miller screams after finishing second in the men's 100m butterfly final at the Atlanta Olympics to Russian Denis Pankratov. (Allsport: Al Bello via Getty Images)

It included parties, an ill-conceived marriage, injury, addiction, pimping, bankruptcy, drug dealing and finally more than three years in maximum security prison. But it was prison that saved him.

Handsome and armed with a cheeky grin he was considered the pin-up boy of the pool.

Scott Miller in 1994 just before he would truly grab the nation's attention. (Supplied)

Fame was thrust upon him and so were the pitfalls that came with it.

Miller was trying to live two lives. That of the party boy and the swimmer — it would lead to a positive test for marijuana and a short ban.

"You go to things and you don't know why you're going to them … you're doing it for someone else."

It was a time his best friend, Olympic gold medallist Chris Fydler remembers well.

Chris Fydler (centre) celebrates gold with Ashley Callus (left) and Michael Klim (right) in the famous "smash 'em like guitars" race at the Sydney 2000 Games. (Darren England/ALLSPORT)

"Following the 96 Olympics [Miller] was a superstar in Australia and not just in the sporting world," Fydler said.

"He was on every talk show. He was wearing silk shirts, he was partying with models, he was ambassador for various brands and having a general kind of good time.

"You couldn't walk down the street without someone recognis