Men's European Swimmer of the Year

Top 3 Finishers
Pieter van den Hoogenband, NED
Alexander Popov, RUS
Lars Frolander, SWE

When someone dominates the European Championships and ties the record for most gold medals ever won at that meet with six, it's pretty easy to determine who just might emerge as Swimming World's male European Swimmer of the Year. It's Pieter van den Hoogenband, 21, the first swimmer from The Netherlands to be accorded the honor. And as fate would have it, Inge de Bruijn made it a clean sweep for Holland when she was named the female winner. "Pieter the Great" was simply sensational at Istanbul, site of the Europeans. He captured the 50, 100 and 200 meter freestyles along with the 50 meter fly. His Holland team was also victorious in the 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays, but he lost the chance for a record seven gold medals when they were disqualified in the 800 freestyle relay. His 50 time of 22.06 ranked in a tie for second in the world in ‘99 and a tie for seventh performance all-time. He was fastest in the world in the 100 free (48.47) and 50 fly (23.89) and fourth in the 200 free (1:47.09). His most impressive performance was the 100, where he turned in history's third fastest performance. It was the fastest time swum since Alex Popov's world record of 48.21 in 1994. And "Hoogie" boogied in the relays, too, setting the fastest splits in history: 47.20 and 1:45.20.