Tom Dolan analyses Van den Hoogenband

It’s always interesting to hear what other great athletes think of their colleagues. Prior to the dream battle between Van den Hoogenband, Thorpe and Phelps at the 200m free style finals at the Olympics in Athens, Tom Dolan analysed the semi-finals and Van den Hoogenband in particular:

“Van den Hoogenband looks like he's swimming really well. I thought Thorpe looked good in his 200 semifinal, as did Phelps, but I thought van den Hoogenband looked really good. Of the three, he looked the best. He's a different type of swimmer. He has much more easy speed up front, meaning he's flat-out more of a sprinter than Thorpe and Phelps. The interesting part of the race is how he uses that to advantage. I would imagine he would go out much harder and just try to get out ahead of Thorpe and Phelps and hang on. Thorpe and Phelps are probably better closers than Van den Hoogenband, but he has way more speed up front.”

Unfortunately VDH lost the gold to Thorpe, but he still won the silver before Phelps. An exciting race!


Source quote: sportsillustrated.cnn.com


Also read other background articles related to Pieter van den Hoogenband:

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- “Winning the gold three consecutive times will be a mission impossible”

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