Pieter van den Hoogenband

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Olympic medal record
Men’s Swimming
Gold	2000 Sydney	100m freestyle
Gold	2000 Sydney	200m freestyle
Gold	2004 Athens	100m freestyle
Silver	2004 Athens	200m freestyle
Silver	2004 Athens	4x100m freestyle relay
Bronze	2000 Sydney	50m freestyle
Bronze	2000 Sydney	4x200m freestyle relay

Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (born March 14, 1978, in Maastricht, Limburg) is a Dutch swimmer and a triple Olympic champion. He is the current world record holder in 100 m freestyle swimming (47.84s).

The son of Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband and Astrid Verver, a former Dutch 800m freestyle silver medalist at the European Championships, Pieter grew up in Geldrop, where he swam for PSV Eindhoven. His father is a team doctor with the professional football team of the same club. In 1993, Pieter achieved his first successes, performing well on the European Youth Olympic Days.

Prior to the Atlanta Games, Astrid van den Hoogenband, who was coaching the Dutch team, became frustrated with the swimmers representing the Netherlands, feeling they had much potential but would not be able to live up to it due to lack of adequate support. She pleaded with Cees to take action, as he carried much weight from his professional connections. After Astrid threatened to remove Pieter from the sport, Cees created a small foundation and signed up 20 initial sponsors who each paid $2,500 to fund a team trainer. The Dutch swimming team eventually signed extremely lucrative contracts with Philips, Nike, and Speedo. Enough funds were raised to open a swim school in Eindhoven, van den Hoogenband's place of residence. The team eventually grew to ten. Pieter remained the Netherlands' brightest star, and along with fellow Dutch Inge de Bruijn brought the Netherlands many victories in the sport.

His international breakthrough came at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Only 18 years old, van den Hoogenband surprised many by finishing 4th in both the 100 and 200 m freestyle.

After winning 6 gold medals at the 1999 European Championships, he was one of the favourites at the 2000 Summer Olympics, but his adversaries were formidable. In the 200 m freestyle, he faced Australian youngster Ian Thorpe, favourite of the home crowd in Sydney. In the semi-finals, van den Hoogenband set a new world record, but Thorpe countered with a time only 0.02s slower. In an exciting final, van den Hoogenband equalled his time from the semi-finals to win the gold medal. In the 100 m freestyle, van den Hoogenband again set a world record in the semi-finals and won his second gold medal, defeating the 1992 and 1996 champion, Aleksandr Popov. He won two more medals, both bronze, in the 50 m freestyle and the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay, in which he was the final swimmer.

He was named the 2000 Male World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World magazine .

At the 2001 Aquatics World Championships, van den Hoogenband won four silver medals in the 50, 100, 200 and 4 x 100 m freestyle events. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle and two silvers in the 200m freestyle and the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.

He and his wife, former medley swimmer Minouche Smit, are expecting their first child in November 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of swimmers

[edit] References

• Swim Rankings profile
• Zwemkroniek (in Dutch)

Olympic champions in men's 100 m freestyle

1896: Alfréd Hajós | 1906: Charles Daniels | 1908: Charles Daniels | 1912: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku | 1920: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku | 1924: Johnny Weissmuller | 1928: Johnny Weissmuller | 1932: Yasuji Miyazaki | 1936: Ferenc Csík | 1948: Walter Ris | 1952: Clarke Scholes | 1956: Jon Henricks | 1960: John Devitt | 1964: Don Schollander | 1968: Michael Wenden | 1972: Mark Spitz | 1976: Jim Montgomery | 1980: Jörg Woithe | 1984: Rowdy Gaines | 1988: Matt Biondi | 1992: Aleksandr Popov | 1996: Aleksandr Popov | 2000: Pieter van den Hoogenband | 2004: Pieter van den Hoogenband

Olympic champions in men's 200 m freestyle
1900: Frederick Lane | 1968: Michael Wenden | 1972: Mark Spitz | 1976: Bruce Furniss | 1980: Sergey Kopliakov | 1984: Michael Gross | 1988: Duncan Armstrong | 1992: Yevgeny Sadovyi | 1996: Danyon Loader | 2000: Pieter van den Hoogenband | 2004: Ian Thorpe

Preceded by: Gianni Romme	Dutch Sportsman of the Year 1999 to 2000	Succeeded by: Erik Dekker
Preceded by: Erben Wennemars	Dutch Sportsman of the Year 2004	Succeeded by: Yuri van Gelder
Preceded by: Ian Thorpe	World Swimmer of the Year 2000	Succeeded by: Ian Thorpe