{"id":378974,"date":"2019-07-08T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=378974"},"modified":"2019-07-07T14:15:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T21:15:05","slug":"swimming-world-presents-did-you-know-fun-facts-in-aquatic-history-pieter-van-den-hoogenband-and-mark-spitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimming-world-presents-did-you-know-fun-facts-in-aquatic-history-pieter-van-den-hoogenband-and-mark-spitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming World Presents “Did You Know? Fun Facts in Aquatic History: Pieter van den Hoogenband and Mark Spitz”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did You Know? <\/span>
\nFun Facts in Aquatic History:
\nPieter van den Hoogenband and Mark Spitz<\/span><\/h1>\n

By Andy Ross<\/span><\/p>\n

Pieter van den Hoogenband and Mark Spitz never won gold medals at the Long Course World Championships…but for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Spitz retired after the 1972 Olympic Games when he won seven gold medals. Van den Hoogenband settled for silver medals after finishing runner-up six times to some of the biggest names the sport has ever seen. Even the two times he swam on his country\u2019s medal-winning relays (1998 and 2001), the Netherlands finished second!<\/p>\n

MARK SPITZ<\/span><\/strong>
\nSpitz told Swimming World after the Munich Games in 1972, \u201cI had to come back from a defeat in Mexico City that was hard to live with. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do it again…but I don\u2019t have to.\u201d Since there weren\u2019t any opportunities for swimmers to continue professionally, Spitz retired after two Olympic Games with 11 medals (9 gold\/1 silver\/1bronze)\u2014and just before FINA introduced the World Championships in 1973.
\nAfter he won his second of two gold medals in Munich, he told the media, \u201cI never swam for glory\u2014only for the satisfaction of being recognized as the best in the world in a particular event. That\u2019s the goal of any athlete, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

PIETER VAN DEN HOOGENBAND<\/span><\/strong>
\nVan den Hoogenband had plenty of opportunities to win gold medals at Long Course Worlds. He made his debut in 1998, when he earned a bronze (200 meter free) and silver (4×200 free relay) at 19. He became a household name two years later at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when he took down hometown favorite Ian Thorpe in the 200 final, breaking the Aussie\u2019s world record with a 1:45.35 in semifinals and matching that a day later in the final.<\/p>\n

Hoogie became the first man to break 48 seconds in the 100 free when he swam a 47.84 in semifinals the day after the 200. The next night in the final, he swam a 48.30, which was still fast enough to deny Alexander Popov from becoming the first man to win three straight Olympic gold medals in any event.<\/p>\n

To read more fun facts about Mark Spitz and Pieter van den Hoogenband,
\ncheck out the full July 2019 issue of Swimming World Magazine<\/em>, available now!<\/p>\n

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