Swimming World Throwback Thursday Video: Hoogie’s 100 Free World Record

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 17. LAST week’s Throwback Thursday video featured an amazing 100 freestyle from the 1964 Olympics, and this week’s video takes you back to the Olympic Games to honor one of the best swims in history, guided by new Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren.

In his years as head coach of the Dutch national swim team in the 1990s and 2000s, Verhaeren was one of the people responsible for bringing the Netherlands up to its current prominence as a swimming power. Under his care, Pieter van den Hoogenband leapfrogged his way up the ranks from an also-ran at the 1996 Olympics to world record holder in 2000.

In this week’s video, we bring you van den Hoogenband’s world record in the 100 freestyle in the semifinals at the 2000 Olympics. The time of 47.84 lasted as the fastest swim in history until the advent of the high-tech full-body suits in 2008, when Alain Bernard posted a 47.60 in March of that year.

That’s nearly eight years of owning a world record. And the 47.84 stood as the best swim in a textile suit until James Magnussen’s breakthrough swim at the 2011 world championships, leading off Australia’s 400 free relay with a 47.49.

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