Swimming: Stars flounder in wake of Dutch Dolphin

It was supposed to be Ian Thorpe's Games, but last night a slim Dutchman made an irresistible claim to be regarded as the top swimmer at the Sydney Olympics.

Following his dramatic 200m freestyle win over Thorpedo on Monday night, 22-year-old Pieter van den Hoogenband grabbed gold in the the 100m freestyle as well.

Up against him were double-Olympic champion Alexander Popov, Australian former world record holder Michael Klim and Atlanta silver medallist Gary Hall jun of the US.

Klim swam strongly down the first leg and was in the lead at the turn but little separated the top four swimmers on the second leg until, just 15m from home, van den Hoogenband slipped ahead to claim victory in a time of 48.30 seconds, outside the world record time of 47.84 that he set in the semifinals.

"I'm still dreaming. It's unbelievable what I'm doing right now," said van den Hoogenband after the race. "I was very focused. I had a bad start but I knew once I got into the second 50m I would be okay."

Swimming experts say van den Hoogenband has several disadvantages over his competitors. At 1.93m and 73kg he is of slighter build than his main rivals and he is a slower starter and worse turner than either Klim or Popov.

But his flotation, rolling rhythm of a stroke and balance from head to feet, creates by far the least friction in the water. That propels him on at the greatest speed - towards gold.

His streamlining comes naturally but his technique comes from a Dutch swimming programme which was radically overhauled after the Netherlands returned poor results in the pool at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Van den Hoogenband - nicknamed the Dutch Dolphin after his six gold medals in the 1999 European Championships - has an impressive sporting pedigree. His mother is a former Olympic swimmer who narrowly missed a medal in the 800m freestyle at the Munich Games in 1972 and his father, Cees-Rijn, is the doctor of the Eindhoven football team.

He is known for being so relaxed at swim meets that he often forgets his goggles and costumes. But there was nothing absent-minded about the way he stamped his authority over the world's best swimmers this week.

"We came to the lion's den and we did it. Pieter is the sleeping kind and all of a sudden he awakes," said his father.