Who can stop 'the Hoogie'?

Van den Hoogenband embraces Australian Ian Thorpe

After watching Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband complete a freestyle sprint double on day five in the pool, BBC Sport's Bob Ballard asks: "Who can stop the 'Hoogie'?"

The 22-year-old from Maastricht seems impregnable in the freestyle right now and Ian Thorpe must be breathing a sigh of relief that he decided the 400m was a race too many for his Olympic programme.

After beating the Australian superstar to take gold in the 200m, van den Hoogenband beat a star-studded field in the 100m freestyle.

Russian Alexander Popov, who was bidding to become the first man to win the title three times in a row, came in second, and Gary Hall Junior took bronze for the US.

That meant, surprisingly, nothing for the man who had held the world record for less than 72 hours, Australia's Michael Klim.

Although the Netherlands may not have strength in depth, what they do have is two of the most high profile swimmers in the world.

De Bruijn

Inge de Bruijn, not to be outdone by her male team-mate, broke another world record, which she seems to be doing for fun these days.

The 100m freestyle record was trimmed still further to an almost unbelievable 53.77.

Inge de Bruijn looks unbeatable

Nobody is going to come close to her on that form in Thursday's final.

After the early exit of record holder Penny Heyns from the 200m breastroke competition, another supposed "dead cert" for gold, Susie O'Neill, failed to retain her 200m butterfly title.

The lesser fancied Misty Hyman took it from her in an Olympic record time of 2.05.88.

With three days of competition left in the pool, the fall-out for some of the countries who have underachieved at the Games has begun.

German disappointment

Germany were ranked number one in Europe after the European Championships in June, but they have found medals hard to come by, and their once golden girl Franziska van Almsick has been pilloried by the German media after her failure to get close to the medal rostrum.

It's scant consolation that she still holds the world record for the 200m freestyle as she never threatened Susie O'Neill in the final.

Contrast that with the Italians, who have claimed two gold medals in the men's events for the first time ever.

Britain has yet to break its duck and we are more than halfway through the competition

  Bob Ballard

Both to Domenico Fioravanti who added the 200m breaststroke title to the 100 he won earlier in the competition.

And with Massimiliano Rosolino looking to add a 200m individual medley medal to the silver and bronze he has from freestyle races, and Lorenzo Vismara a high ranking swimmer in the 50m freestyle, the Italians could finish as a close second to Holland of the European nations.

Lest we forget, Britain has yet to break its duck and we are more than halfway through the competition.