The over-the-top behavior of the fans was matched only by the over-the-top swimming. Fifteen world records were broken during the eight days of competition–more than three times as many as in Atlanta. By the end of 32 events, only six Olympic records were still standing from the last millennium. The Aussies blasted off when Ian Thorpe broke two world records. Then the Americans kicked in: Misty Hyman clipped Madame Butterfly’s (O’Neill’s) wings in the 200-meter fly; Brooke Bennett became the Princess of Distance, winning gold in the 400- and 800-meter free, and Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall Jr. produced a stunning dead heat for double gold in the 50-meter sprint. Overall, the United States took 33 medals, compared with 18 for the Aussies and eight for the Netherlands. The Dutch grew flippers: the boyishly handsome van den Hoogenband and his countrywoman Inge de Bruijn won five gold medals and set six world records between them. “This is the greatest meet that’s ever been in swimming,” says Swimming World editor Phillip Whitten, who has chronicled the sport for four decades.
Amid the cheers for all the record smashing, there were some darker murmurs of suspicion. What made so many swim so fast? Australia may be a nation where kids dream of setting swimming records the way some American kids imagine themselves in the NBA, but enthusiasm alone didn’t seem to explain such astonishing times. New technology in suits and pools gets some of the credit. So do better training techniques. “There’s a more scientific, complete approach to the sport than ever before,” explains U.S. Olympic women’s coach Richard Quick. But Quick also believes that more than imitation sharkskin is coming out of laboratories. “I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone or any nation, but it’s definitely not drug-free,” Quick said.
That didn’t sit well with Hoogie’s father, Dr. Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband, who diagnosed Quick as “the most stupid idiot I ever saw,” adding that the Americans were casting aspersions on other teams because “they can’t win.” Drug allegations can stem from sour grapes, but sometimes they’re accurate. At the Atlanta Games, Ireland’s overnight phenom Michelle Smith won three gold medals. Two years later she was banned from the sport for sabotaging a drug test. Now 27-year-old “Inky” de Bruijn, who hadn’t won at a major meet until the past year, has raised eyebrows again with her three world-record swims. In the 100-meter butterfly, she beat Amy Van Dyken’s Olympic time of 59.13 by more than two seconds. (Van Dyken’s gold-medal performance in Atlanta wouldn’t have been fast enough to make the eight-person final in Sydney.) The Flying Dutchwoman, who trains with a respected U.S. coach, credits her achievement, in part, to increased weight training, and denies any drug use. “If you get a world record, they just want to chop your head off,” she says.
No one looked as if she wanted to wield the ax more than America’s Jenny Thompson, who in 1992 narrowly lost gold to a Chinese swimmer she and others suspected of using drugs. Last week Thompson helped the United States win three relays, but she couldn’t help looking disappointed as her last shot at individual gold was doused by de Bruijn.
Fingers have been pointed at the Americans, too. At 33, Dara Torres won three bronzes in the sprints, after not competing in the events for seven years. She, too, denied any improprieties and credited a regimen of dry-land and flexibility training.
Age alone should not be grounds for indictment. As swimming becomes more lucrative, athletes remain in the sport longer. And as they train into their late 20s and even beyond, they often get stronger. In Australia, this is something of a tradition: thus “King Kieren” Perkins, 27, was able to go for his third straight gold Saturday night in the grueling 1,500-meter freestyle (he won silver). American Tom Dolan, 25, who broke his own world rec- ord in the 400 individual medley in this, his second, Games, has no plans to retire. “I’m nowhere near making the millions that Ian Thorpe is making, but I’ve been able to live comfortably,” he says, if swimming 90,000 meters a week can be called comfortable.
Brains as well as bucks are now being spent on the sport. “This [Olympics] was a wake-up call. It’s time we start doing more for our swimmers,” says Mike Bottom, who trains both Hall and Ervin. While other countries have government-sponsored sport institutes, Speedo, the swimsuit company, is the closest thing in American swimming. Coaching in the United States has always been based on a hodgepodge of styles and theories, but it is slowly moving in the direction of the other swimming powerhouses, where training methods are more standardized and also more geared to individual events. Bottom has started a training camp called Sprint Team 2000, an all-inclusive approach to sprinting. His athletes take a “horse bar”–the same dietary supplement used by the winner of the Kentucky Derby (the horse, not the jockey). They box with heavy bags. And as part of their mental prep, they put on dark glasses with flashing lights while they listen to a “positive thinking” audio.
Science has proved to be a swimmer’s best training partner. For years Australian and Russian coaches have been analyzing computer data on turn rate, stroke efficiency and underwater velocity. During this Olympics, seven videocameras trained on the pool produced computer readouts available to competitors. Another study is analyzing whether the new bodysuit, which has water-repellent fabric, really reduces drag or just increases hype. Thorpe–one of the few who wore the ankle-to-wrist model–swore by it, while legendary Russian sprinter Aleksandr Popov wore $30 briefs.
Everyone agreed about the pool: it was fast. The three-meter depth, round lane dividers and pool-deck gutter system all educed turbulence, the greatest drag on speed.
Not even science, however, can measure the effect of a deafening swimming crowd (words rarely seen together in the States) chanting “Susie! Susie! Susie!” and “Thorpie! Thorpie! Thorpie!” O’Neill tried to block it out. But other swimmers, like the Fourpedo–the record-breaking Aussie 4 x 200 relay team–let the crowd egg them on. “In the third 50, in my right ear I heard the most enormous roar I’ve ever encountered,” says Todd Pearson, who helped Australia finish two body lengths ahead of the Americans. Fast swimming is contagious. “Once barriers are broken, it opens up people’s minds. You know it can be done,” explains Jamie Rauch, who swam on the U.S. relay team.
Fanatical crowds are a tonic that American swimmers generally have to do without. They’ll return home to a nation where swim-meet tickets go begging and the only pumped-up fans are Mom and Dad. But for one raucous week here, these swimmers were part of history–and the hottest ticket in town.
