ATHENS 2004/SWIMMING: The most glamorous sprint in swimming still belongs to Pieter van den Hoogenband. Four years ago in Homebush, the Flying Dutchman broke the world record for the 100 metres freestyle amid whispers of chemical enhancement.

That record of 47.84 has survived through the years and last night in Athens, van den Hoogenband confirmed his status as the master of this race.

He fought off his famous rival Ian Thorpe and the South African, Roland Mark Schoeman, and afterwards swam over to lane eight, where Thorpe was sequestered, to embrace his illustrious foe. When he emerged from the water, a lean and bookish-looking figure compared to his bronzed and towering opponents, he was radiant with happiness.

The atmosphere was not as oppressive as it was in the Sydney arena four years ago: van den Hoogenband's yells of delight were carried off on the warm Athenian breezes and there was the sense reservations towards him have softened since the last Olympics.

Last night, he seemed like a popular champion and his place in the sporting lore of the Netherlands is assured.

Thorpe managed a personal best time of 48.56 in the peripheral lane and adds another bronze Olympic medal to his collection, which betters any other Australian athlete. "I didn't know that - I haven't been counting," he smiled later.

"I was really happy with the swim. I wanted gold but I didn't really think that was going to happen. I wasn't too concerned about the start - I don't think it is all that important to have a good reaction time. Because Alex Popov is one of the fastest in the world at coming off the blocks and he was not here tonight."

Indeed, many competitors were conspicuous by their absence in a race that has always seemed to draw in free-thinkers and wonderful eccentrics. In the Athens games of 1896, over 20,000 people gathered on the Bay of Zea to watch Alfred Hajos of Hungary win this sprint in calamitous conditions. The Hungarian only learned to swim because his father had drowned a few years earlier in the river Danube.

It was in the 100 metres sprint that the legendary Duke Kanamoku, the Honolulu native generally credited with popularising surfing, came to public attention in the Stockholm Games of 1912. His stature and exotic looks brought on film roles and the travel writers of the day sought him out to send home missives on him.

Kanamoku was loafing around on the Corona del Mar beach in California one afternoon in 1917 when a pleasure cruiser went down: although there were fatalities, hundreds of bathers watched on as the Duke swam out on his trademark 16-metre surfboard to haul eight survivors from the ocean.

By 1928, Johnny Weissmuller was displaying the swimming talent that would become his chief contribution to Hollywood when he put together his Tarzan canon. Weissmuller was in the stands in Munich in 1972 and hailed Mark Spitz, as he walked to the starting blocks with the words, "Hey, Mark, it's me, Johnny." Spitz, dead eyed with concentration and temperamentally aloof anyway, did not even blink as he added the 100 metres freestyle to his stash of gold bullion.

Matt Biondi, a tinselled version of Spitz, was the sprint specialist in this event by 1988, by which time the Americans considered it their birthright.

All that changed in the 1990s when Alexander Popov entered the international realm and dominated for the rest of the decade. In his early 30s now, Popov failed to make the grade in this, his fourth Olympics, and will bow out after the race in which was once his grace note, the 50 metres freestyle sprint. He will make tomorrow night's final but a grand return to the medal podium is too much to ask for.

The highlight of last night's evening was also unusual in that it did not feature an American. But they did not have to wait too long to enhance their overall medal count.

At half past eight, Michael Phelps returned to the water and broke an Olympic record to add to his world record in the men's 200 metres individual medley. It means he has six Olympic medals now, four of those gold, with the possibility of becoming only the second Olympian to claim eight medals.

Russian gymnast Alexander Dityatin was the first to manage that (with only three golds) in the Moscow Games of 1980. Phelps has relaxed to an inordinate degree from his first nights around the pool deck, when he moved with as much ease as George Bush on a sightseeing tour of Baghdad. After last night's medal, he strolled around the open territory behind the pool, joking about how terrible his recovery drink tasted and wishing he could have a McDonalds.

"The hard part is over now - the big four man, the 200 flys and two of the relays are out of the way. I am having a blast. I was talking to some of the guys back home last night and they were saying, like, this is amazing."

He slouched against a railing with his silver-placed compatriot Ryan Lochte to watch the USA women's 4x200 freestyle relay team triumph and break the 17-year old world record.

Once again, the Stars and Stripes fluttered in the night air. Phelps will hoist it again before they drain the pool at the end of the week.