Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband is a Dutch retired swimmer. He is a triple Olympic champion and former world record holder.
Ian James Thorpe is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in his hometown of Sydney.
The men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay took place on 15 August at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece.
The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 19 and 20.
The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 17 and 18. There were 69 competitors from 62 nations. Nations had been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
Michael George Klim, OAM is a Polish-born Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist, world champion, and former world record-holder of the 1990s and 2000s. He is known as the creator of straight arm freestyle.
Johan Kenkhuis is an Olympic medal winning Dutch swimmer.
Marcel Reinier Wouda is a Dutch former swimmer, who became the first Dutch world champion in men's swimming when he won the world title in the 200 m individual medley at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. He was the coach of Olympic champions Maarten van der Weijden and Hinkelien Schreuder at the Nationaal Zweminstituut Eindhoven.
Massimiliano "Massi" Rosolino is an Italian retired competitive swimmer.
Nicholas Sprenger is an Australian middle-distance freestyle swimmer who won a silver medal in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
The men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 16 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia. There were 73 competitors from 66 nations. Nations have been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games.
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 17–18 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia. There were 51 competitors from 44 nations, with each nation having up to two swimmers.
The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo is a retired Dutch swimmer of mixed Dutch-Javanese Surinamese origin who mainly specialises in sprint freestyle events. She is a triple Olympic champion, winning the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics, and in the 50 m freestyle and 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics. Kromowidjojo holds the world record in the 50 meter freestyle short course, and as part of the Dutch team she holds the world record in the 4×50 m freestyle relay. She formerly held world records in the 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m freestyle relays. She has won a total of 39 medals in FINA World Championship events.
The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. There were 64 competitors from 55 nations.
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. There were 58 competitors from 50 nations. The winning margin was 1.89 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this race has been won by more than 1.8 seconds at the Olympics.
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23), Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals in individual events (16). At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps tied the record of eight medals of any color at a single Games, held by gymnast Alexander Dityatin, by winning six gold and two bronze medals. Four years later, when he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
Adam Lucas is an Australian Olympic swimmer who specialized in individual medley (IM) events. Lucas represented Australia at the 2004 Summer Olympics Games in Athens, Greece, swimming in the 200m IM. Lucas was the Australian Record holder in the Men's short course 100 IM, and won a silver and bronze World Championship medal as a member of 4x200m Freestyle Relay squads at the 2004 World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis, USA, and the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, Canada.
