Pieter van den Hoogenband

After narrowly missing the podium twice in Atlanta, Pieter van den Hoogenband broke through to the top in the next Olympiad. His first international titles came in 1999, when he won six gold medals at the European Championships in Istanbul. He confirmed his status as the best freestyle sprint swimmer at the Sydney Olympics. In a close race with home favourite Ian Thorpe, he won the 200 m freestyle in world record time. Two days later, in the Olympic semi-finals, he became the first man to swim the 100 m free in less than 48 seconds. He won the final as well, beating two-time champion Aleksandr Popov.

In 2001 and 2003, Van den Hoogenband attempted to win a world title, but failed to do so. Throughout his career, he won 8 silver medals at the World Championships, but never a gold medal. He did retain his Olympic 100 m title in Athens, adding silver medals in the 200 and 4 x 100 relay. His career seemed over in 2005, when he was diagnosed with a hernia in his back, which had long been a painful area for the swimmer. But Van den Hoogenband fought back and celebrated his return with a European title in the 200 m freestyle in 2006. He then set his sights on winning a third consecutive 100 m title at the Beijing Olympics, but eventually finished just outside the medals. In December 2008, the swimming pool in Eindhoven where Van den Hoogenband had trained much of his career was named after him. Earlier in the year, Van den Hoogenband had lost his 100 m world record to Alain Bernard in the same pool.

Van den Hoogenband was named Dutch sportsman of the year three times (1999, 2000, 2004), World Swimmer of the Year (2000) and European Swimmer of the Year (1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004).