Swimming: Dutchman has to endure glory with suspicion

Pieter Van Den Hoogenband's astonishing momentum in the Olympic pool gathered still more force when he added the scalp of the legendary Russian Alexander Popov to that of Australia's Ian Thorpe with victory in the 100 metres freestyle.

It was another convulsion in the Olympic water. But if this was a one-two combination of stunning force it is also true that the more the 22-year-old Dutchman widens his impact on these Games the more he is being made to realise another race is going on.

It is the one between glory and suspicion.

Suspicion is gaining ground. After he beat Australia's beloved "Thorpedo" – and smashed still another world record – in the 200m freestyle last Saturday night Van den Hoogenband escaped interrogation.

The world of swimming, and all of Australia, was still in a state of shock. But last night the hard question came in.

It was brief but to the acid point and it asked: "Are you clean, Pieter? And if you are, how do you prove it?"

Van den Hoogenband, son of the sports doctor at PSV Eindhoven, the club to which the other sensation of Dutch swimming, the serial world record-breaker Inge de Bruijn, is also connected, smiled thinly and said: "I have to pee every day, and yesterday I had to do it twice. We are swimmers and we have rules; you have to start on the blocks and you have to touch the wall and you don't take drugs."

The American Gary Hall Jnr was asked if he was beaten in a clean race. Hall, who followed home Van den Hoogenband and Popov to the surprising exclusion of the Australian Michael Klim, said: "You can't accuse somebody of taking drugs just because they are swimming fast. As far as I'm concerned this is the most satisfying race of my life. I was involved in another great race and I came out of it with a bronze medal."

It was another compelling contradiction here of the belief that, outside of the showcasing of the Olympics, swimming is a sport desperately in need of injections of drama and spectacle.

Popov, the masterful Russian, who has the bearing and the laconic style of a born gunfighter and was attempting to become the first swimmer to win two golds in three consecutive Olympics, fought the Eindhoven Express most of the way to the wall, finishing 0.39 behind the winning time of 48.30.

This was nearly half a second off Van den Hoogenband's world record achieved in Tuesday's heats.

After all the recent frenzy in the pool this was an anti-climax which underlined the fact that here the appetite for sensation has become insatiable.

Glory versus suspicion has indeed become a relentless duel.

Van den Hoogenband provided the classic explanation for the dramatic improvements in times produced, it seems almost effortlessly, by so many swimmers here over the last few days.

He said the pressure of competition had drawn it out of him. That, and harder work and improved diet.

Wherever you look swimmers are surging into new and previously undreamed levels of performance.

Misty Hyman, the surprise winner of the women's 200m butterfly, took two seconds off her best time in the heats before overwhelming the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Susie O'Neill of Australia, who earlier said of De Bruijn's rampage: "It's pretty suss," as in suspicious.

Hyman put her progress down to the "conquering of doubts".

A fresh faced 21-year-old from Arizona, Hyman's happiness demanded to be taken at face value.

The Italian Davide Rummolo, who claimed bronze behind his gold-medallist team-mate Domenico Fioravanti in the 200m breaststroke, embraced his countryman and held the Italian flag on the victory podium.

But inevitably some noted coldly that he had carved nearly five seconds off his time in the European Championships in July.

Also impossible to ignore was the cool, almost resigned reaction of Van den Hoogenband to a question which went straight to the heart of his character.

He was asked if he was a cheat, if his achievements were an elaborate con. But amiably, he moved on to a discussion of the pressures which have come with his new fame.

He explained that after victory over Thorpe all he had wanted to do was rest – and eat pasta. He couldn't. There was this strange new need to deal with autograph hunters.

"It is all so strange, so really unbelievable," said the Dutchman. Popov, who will again try for gold in the 50m freestyle, put an arm around Van den Hoogenband and said: "Be prepared to live with it for another four years."

The Russian said that he could live with the march of time and the invasion of new young stars like Van den Hoogenband.

"The generation who were before me had to face it and I always knew one day that I would have to do so too," said Popov.

"I always knew I couldn't swim for ever."

Maybe at 29 Popov can see most clearly what faces Pieter van den Hoogenband in the coming years. Maybe he can see the growing spectre of glory without honour, supreme achievement with the constant companion of doubt.

It is the tragedy of so much of sport, this agenda written by cheats but applied to all. Hall was asked: "Is Pieter now the best swimmer in the world?"

He replied: "Gosh, that's a difficult question." But then, around this Olympic pool, aren't they all?