Hoogie: Now I am a fan too

Lungani Zama catches up with the legendary Flying Dutchman

OFTEN, when you ask sporting legends what their career highlights are, you assume that their special memory will be along the same lines as our own as observers.

Pieter van den Hoogenband, the Flying Dutchman who lit up the 2000 Sydney Olympics, doesn’t even rank those stunning exploits as his happiest days in the “greatest show on Earth”.

A star in the 100m freestyle, swimming’s equivalent of athletic’s 100m dash, the Dutch legend had a rich haul of seven Olympic medals, including back-to-back wins in the 100m.

“No, no. In 2000, I was at the peak of my physical ability. I was young, confident and I expected to do well. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I knew that I should do well, even considering the guys that I was swimming against.”

For him, his finest hour at the Olympics came four years later, winning the 100m in Athens.

“I had been having back problems and hadn’t trained as well as I wanted. I knew that I didn’t have a strong start because of my back, so I always had to make it up on the second lap in the 100m final,” the 34year-old reflected.

That he did, overhauling South Africa’s Roland Schoeman and relegating Aussie icon Ian Thorpe to third.

Our chance meeting occurred earlier this year, during the Laureus Sports Awards in London. In a scrum of journalists, this scribe’s broken Afrikaans came in handy.

Private

“Ah, you speak my language. Now you can have a private conversation right here and no one else will understand,” he joked, before warming to the task of explaining what happens to superstar swimmers when they hang up their Speedos.

“I try to train the next generation of swimmers,” he said.

That answer shouldn’t come as a surprise because his father was an influential coach of the Dutch swimming team, while his mother was a silver medallist in the European Youth Championships. So clearly then, swimming was always in his blood.

“I was given every opportunity by my parents and now I have the chance to do the same for the next batch.”

Van den Hoogenband calls Eindhoven home and he is happily settled there with his wife, Minouche Smit, a former medley swimmer, and their two children, Daphne and Sander.

Having retired in 2008 after being left behind by the new technology of swimsuits at the Beijing Olympics, he now busies himself with organising next year’s European Youth Olympic Festival, in Eintrech.

“You know, I got my first break at the 1993 Youth Olympics, so it is amazing how life works out,” he smiled.

“I am the tournament director now and it is very important to me that we try and organise the very best facilities for these kids, and then hopefully they can make the jump and be stars in the Olympic Games of the future.”

He doesn’t hide his passion for the Games, the ultimate celebration of human spirit.

“It’s funny, because people forget that we also like watching the Games as fans, even when we are in competition,” he explained. “We used to get just as excited, because we are also humans, you know!”

With that in mind, it is not so surprising that he remembers 2008 fondly anyway, despite being made to feel like an “old man” in the pool.

“When I think of 2008, yes I retired, but one of the best things about those Games was seeing my very good friend, Maarten van der Wiejden, winning the open water gold medal. He had overcome so much, beating cancer, and to see him win made that Olympics a very special one for me.”

Van den Hoogenband’s own struggles in his final bow at the Games were down to his refusal to use the new-age swimsuits that caused so much controversy that year.

“I am an old-fashioned swimmer. I was taught that way and have always loved it that way, being natural. So when I got to Beijing and suddenly came fifth in a race that I used to dominate, I felt like an old man.”

Van den Hoogenband said it felt weird, because he was in great shape. “It’s just the way I feel, but I don’t think that it is right for old records to be compared to ones set with the new suits,” he sighed.

“You have to be inside the sport to really understand what I mean. For sprints, those suits make a big difference. The history of swimming has gone and it is very sad when records like Krisztina Egerszegi (the Hungarian who set the women’s 200m backstroke in 1991 Euro Championships) are now being beaten so easily. That, for me, was one of the greatest ever performances and it is sad to see that disappear.”

Changing the subject to slightly better memories, the Flying Dutchman says Sydney 2000 was a very fun time to be in the sport.

Spectacle

“Popov, Thorpe… it was a great spectacle. But I was in great shape, having won six gold medals at the Euro Championships the year before. I was ready,” he added gleefully.

He beat 1992 and 1996 Olympic 100m champion Alexander Popov, dashing the Russian’s dreams of a hat-trick of titles. But it was the 100m that the world was enthralled by. Going literally toe-to-toe with the Dutchman was a young Thorpe, the darling of the nation.

“I set the world record in the semis and was very confident going into the final.”

Thorpe had been only two hundredths of a second behind Van den Hoogenband’s new record in his semi, but when the Dutchman matched his time in the final, he had secured a glorious double.

Thorpe tried in vain to make it to this year’s Games in London and Van den Hoogenband says it was tough to see him struggle. “I wasn’t very happy when I saw that he was making a comeback.”

Van den Hoogenband said that despite Thorpe’s attempt to turn back the clock, he would always be remembered fondly for his exploits.

“Of course, he was a great swimmer in his time. And a great friend,” he beamed.

And that, in essence is the story of the Olympics. Brothers in arms, even when lined up against one another on the start line.

Van den Hoogenband says that he is looking forward to London, to what will be a unique festival of sport.

“I am a fan now. I can sit back and enjoy all the many different events and share in the excitement. I can’t wait.” CYCLIST Floyd Landis, stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win after testing positive for testosterone, is the subject of a federal investigation into a $450 000 (R3.5m) defence fund he created and later abandoned, a legal source said on Friday.

A letter sent to Landis, 36, informing him of a grand jury probe indicated he was being investigated for mail and wire fraud linked to the Floyd Fairness Fund, said the source, who has seen the letter.

The fund, created in 2007, raised money to defend Landis from the allegations of using performance-enhancing drugs after the International Cycling Association stripped him of his title.

Phillip Halpern, a federal prosecutor in the San Diego US Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the investigation. Michael Henson, a New York publicist who was the fund’s executive director, did not return calls.

After a three-year battle, Landis did an about-face and admitted to doping, implicating teammates including bicycling legend Lance Armstrong, charges that Armstrong denies.

In 2010 he promised to refund the approximately $450 000 the Floyd Fairness Fund collected from individuals and supporters, but no refunds have been made, the source said.

Landis’s racing license with the US Cycling Association expired in 2010 and has not been renewed, according to association officials. He now lives in Idyllwild, California.

Radioshack’s woes continued Friday after the American cycling team announced that Dane Jakob Fuglsang, their leader for the Giro d’italia, would miss the Italian stage race due to injury.

It added: “The team management and medical staff have decided to take the Danish rider off the team’s roster for the Giro d’italia.”

The Giro is the first of the season’s three Grand Tours, and starts on May 5 for three weeks of racing.

Fuglsang said: “I am very disappointed. The Giro was my big objective for this year. Yesterday I had so much pain in the last 40 km, I was just miserable.

Radioshack, run by Johan Bruyneel, have had a miserable campaign so far this season, and the team added: “This injury is another setback after the bad luck already encountered in the spring Classics with Fabian Cancellara’s collar bone fracture.” – SAPA-AFP MICHAEL Clarke headed for his first stint in the Indian Premier League yesterday, insisting that he was looking forward to playing under former India skipper Sourav Ganguly.

Clarke masterminded Australia’s 2-0 Test series win in the West Indies, taking his record as national team captain since succeeding Ricky Ponting last year to nine wins, three draws and two defeats.

But at the Pune Warriors he will have to play under Ganguly, whose international career featured a number of fierce, competitive clashes with the Australians.

“I think that Sourav’s always been a nice guy. I’ve always got along with him well and I look forward to playing under him,” said Clarke, after Australia beat West Indies by 75 runs in the third and final Test.

“It seems like he’s doing a really good job as captaincoach over there… The boys seem to be really happy about how things are, so for me it’s an eye-opener.”

Clarke will have to reacquaint himself with the Twenty20 cricket in India, having already quit the shorter international form of the game to concentrate on his Test and ODI career with Australia.