The official seventeenth anniversary of the 200 free at the 2000 Sydney Olympics won’t occur until September 18, but the Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband<\/strong> made a return to the Sydney pool where he won two gold medals for a Dutch documentary project. Van den Hoogenband spent most of the day on Thursday with old rival\u00a0Ian Thorpe\u00a0<\/strong>in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time was in Eindhoven when I retired after the Beijing Olympics (in 2008),\u2019\u2019 the Flying Dutchman told\u00a0The Australian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIan flew in as a surprise special guest and we had a couple of days together, which was very very special. It\u2019s hard to believe that the Sydney Olympics was 17 years ago. We were so young and so passionate about swimming. I think what people saw when we raced each other that we really respected each other. I respected him as a swimmer and we needed each other for the competition. It made us both better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIan said to me yesterday that the 200m freestyle race in Sydney helped him to train hard for another four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van den Hoogenband still has a special bond with the country of Australia. He proposed to his wife Marie Jose-Crooijmans<\/strong> on Hamilton Island and he still tries to visit his old coach Jacco Verhaeren\u00a0<\/strong>on the Gold Coast once a year.\u00a0Verhaeren is now the Australia national head coach.<\/p>\n

Van den Hoogenband and Thorpe have long been retired but both of them have gone into commentary in retirement. Van den Hoogenband expects the Australian duo of\u00a0Kyle Chalmers\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Cameron McEvoy\u00a0<\/strong>as well as American\u00a0Caeleb Dressel\u00a0<\/strong>to be among the contenders of taking down the world record in the 100 free held by\u00a0Cesar Cielo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that world record will be gone by Tokyo (the 2020 Olympics) because when we watch swimming and we see the world record is still there, I have mixed feelings. It\u2019s not right that the record is still there. The world record in the 100m freestyle is very important and I am not happy that it\u2019s from the (polyurethane) suit era. I want the best swimmer in the world to be the world record-holder.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s about time someone broke the world record and we closed the whole page on the shiny suits,\u2019\u2019 van den Hoogenband said. \u201cWith Dressel swimming so fast I hope it will motivate Chalmers and McEvoy to perform well and train hard and get there.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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Sydney 17 years later. Same place, same pool. Old friends @IanThorpe<\/a> #Soulmates<\/a>. pic.twitter.com\/TBAXRT0b7u<\/a><\/p>\n
— Pieter van den Hoogenband (@pvdhoogenband) September 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n