Pieter van den Hoogenband is not only a seven-time Olympic medalist, but the Dutch great is also the only swimmer to beat both Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe in individual Olympic races.
The retired van den Hoogenband, 37, was recently in New York, in a wetsuit in the Hudson River, winning the New Amsterdam City Swim of about 1500m. That’s about 15 times van den Hoogenband’s preferred distance during his competitive career. The event raised money for ALS research.
Van den Hoogenband answered questions before the race:
OlympicTalk: What do you remember about the Athens 2004 Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay, passing Jason Lezak on anchor with the then-fastest relay split ever?