Pieter van den Hoogenband has finally made a name for himself, and if it seems excessive at 22 letters and seven syllables, well, that’s too bad.
The Dutchman upset local hero Ian Thorpe in the 200-meter freestyle Monday night, adding an unwelcome dose of reality to an Australian public conditioned to success by the 17-year-old Thorpedo.
There might be a temptation to abbreviate van den Hoogenband’s name to PVDH to save ink, but in the name of fairness, Thorpe would have to become IT–and he certainly isn’t anymore.
The adoring Aussies didn’t count on Thorpe having a sore throat and headaches Monday. And they didn’t count on van den Hoogenband matching the world record he had set in Sunday’s semifinals.
But van den Hoogenband, 22, is no fluke. He won six gold medals at the 1999 European championships. His only sin is that he isn’t Thorpe and thus didn’t exist in the upraised eyes of Australian fans.
“I knew it would be a close race,” van den Hoogenband said. “The whole year when he was breaking world records, I was back home training. He motivated me to train harder. Now I won.”
For the second day in a row, van den Hoogenband swam 1 minute 45.35 seconds. Thorpe’s 1:45.83 gave him a silver medal. He had gone 1:45.37 in the semis.
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“I’m not going to win every race I go in,” Thorpe said. “I’m not going to break every world record. Obviously, now people will see that it just doesn’t always work that way.”
Thorpe will go for his third gold medal Tuesday in the 4-x-200 freestyle relay. He also has won gold in the 400 freestyle and the 4-x-100 freestyle relay.
For van den Hoogenband, whose mother was a Dutch swimmer and whose father was a Dutch water polo player, Monday was the final destination on a long journey. He quit the sport for a year after the 1996 Olympics, then spent much of the last three years getting ready for Thorpe and this moment.
“It’s so weird to have the world record and the Olympic gold medal,” he said. “I trained so hard for this. After the last turn I pushed off the wall and I said, `I really want this gold medal.’ And then with [15 meters left] I was thinking, `Yes, I am going to win this gold medal.'”
Americans won two of their own Monday. Lenny Krayzelburg, who emigrated from Russia to the United States with his parents and sister 11 years ago, won the 100-meter backstroke in :54.38.
“The great thing about America is that it gives you an opportunity,” Krayzelburg said. “I think that’s what it’s all about. If you’re willing to take advantage of that opportunity and sacrifice your life, anything is possible. I’m just an example of that.”
Megan Quann, 16, won the 100-meter breaststroke, setting an American record in 1:07.05. It was Quann who said at the U.S. Olympic trials last month that Penny Heyns, the South African world record-holder, was “going down.” Heyns finished third.
“She has pushed me so hard,” Quann said. “Not that she swims with me every day, but when I swim in practice, it’s her that I see in my mind. It’s her who pushes me every day.”
Thorpe acknowledged feeling run down for the 200, but said that was no excuse. The burden of expectations has not been too hard to bear, he said.
“If you put as much as you can into your race and into your training, you have to be happy with your performance,” he said. “I gave it my best shot, and while I was a little disappointed with the time [in the 200], I wasn’t with the result.”
In Monday’s only other final, Diana Mocanu became the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She took the 100-meter backstroke in 1:00.21, setting an Olympic record in the process.
In Tuesday morning’s prelims, American Misty Hyman was the top qualifier in the 200 butterfly. Her time of 2:07.87 was a tenth of a second faster than Australian Susie O’Neill, the world record-holder.
Van den Hoogenband was the top qualifier in the prelims of the 100 free, going :48.65. American Gary Hall Jr. was fifth.