Sorry, Ronald. I would like to see a Dutch guy win, but practicing in those wooden shoes is just too much of a handicap. Now Ian Thorpe, on the other hand, can practice with "old salties" chasing him. Old salties are salt water crocs that, if you watch the Crocodile Hunter, are pretty common on the streets of Sydney. I think the old salty motivation will guarantee the Aussie beats the Hollander.
It could be Thrope or Hoggie. Thrope talk about moving to Europe to practice. On the other hand, the olympics is sometimes unpredictable and someone could win coming out of left field. Remember the women's 200 meter butterfly at the last olympics no one predicted that Misty Hyman would have even medal let alone win it.
Ian Thorpe (Aus), Peter van den Hoogenband (Ned), and others, did clash yesterday in a 200 meters freestyle race swam in a 25 meters pool, in Paris, France, a FINA World Cup meet.
Thorpe won in 1:41.86, to van den Hoogenband 1:43.16.
Thorpe developed in the past two years as a sprinter too, after considering before, racing in the 1500 meters free.
As a sprinter, Thorpe ranks in 100 meters free Long Course Meters for the year 2002, #3 in the world with 48.73, to van den Hoogenband #1 in the world with 47.86.
van den Hoogenband's world record is 47.84, so 47.86 by him last year, that's top notch fitness for him, and that's the second time in history that anybody -in fact, that van den Hoogenband twice- has gone 47 seconds.
Yesterday's splits show a tendency for more sprints background by van den Hoogenband, against a more distance background by Thorpe.
Thorpe 24.18 50.13 1:16.23 1:41.86
van den Hoogenband 24.13 49.76 1:16.39 1:43.16
I can imagine after a sprint 150 free, Thorpe and van den Hoogenband being neck to neck in respectively 1:16.23 and 1:16.39, then Thorpe nailing a last 50 sprint in 25.63 (to van den Hoogenband 26.77) with use of his trademark strong kick.
Also, there were very good performances in breastroke by Lisogor (Ukr) and Kitajima (Jpn) (Kitajima holds the world record for 200 meters *** Long Course), both shaping up now for the Olympics next year, and by Coman (Rom), winner of the 400 meters free in 3:43.73.
Nice...
Yes, freestyler Ian Thorpe (Aus) swam two days ago, a surprisingly fast 1:56.00 in 200 meter IM, in a 25 meters pool.
Also, he swam a 3:34.xx in 400 meters free, just 5 hundreds of a second off the world best by Grant Hackett (Aus).
In second, in the 400 meters free, was Coman (Rom), with a 3:43.xx again, a few tenth of a second faster than his time from two weeks ago.
The reason I insist so much on Romania's performances, is that it is my courageous native country, overlooked here:
for example, in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, my native country of 21,000,000 people, got in swimming alone two gold medals, a silver and a bronze, while in the late 80s, sprinter Dara Torres (US) was regularly defeated by the then World-Record holder, Costache (Rom) in the 50 meters free.
Also, in breastroke two days ago, it seemed to be confirmed once again that big time world class players right now are:
Sloudnov (Rus), Kitajima (Jpn) and Lisogor (Ukr).
That's right your country does pretty good in swimming and so does other Eastern European countries. And Eastern Europe does not have the same type of swimming conditions that exist in the US or Australia. But some of them are coached well and they (eastern european) countries beat the us most of the time in water polo.
Thorpe swam a very good 200 meter Im recently, he's the best 200 Im swimmer that also swims 200 meter freestyle since Bruce Furness. And Bruce was denied a medal at the 1976 olympics in the 200 meter Im because that olympics didn't swim the event.
That could be...
Yes, Hoogie is getting more and more endurant as races versus Thorpe go.
It reminds me of the stunt Hoogie pulled in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Also, some other hero (in the style of the third place winner of the 200 free yesterday in the Berlin World Cup), might jump in the race for the gold, right during the 2004 Olympics.
The 200 free in the 2004 Athens Olympics, it's going to be a nail biting, nerve wrecking race...
Yesterday, in another World Cup meet in a 25 meters pool, in 200 meters free, Thorpe won in 1:41.69 over van den Hoogenband's 1:42.45.
It might be that since Thorpe losing to van den Hoogenband the 200 free in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Thorpe is right now mentally vaccinated, in races and in the way he trains for races, against losing to van den Hoogenband and others.
