When Thorpe broke the 200 m freestyle Olympic record in the heats the following morning , his main rival Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands ( with World No. 2 ranked and teammate Michael Kim bypassing the 200 metres ) conceded defeat . However , van den Hoogenband showed his hand in the semi-finals by cutting more than a second off his personal best , to set a new world record of 1 min 45.35 s. Thorpe qualified second with a personal best of his own , 0.02 s slower , and was under immense pressure to win the final the following day after his double gold on the first night . Van den Hoogenband started quickly and Thorpe chased him , reaching the 100 m mark just 0.04 s behind . Both swimmers turned at 150 m in identical times . As a result of starting harder than usual , Thorpe faded as van den Hoogenband drew away to claim gold and equal his world record , stunning the home crowd . Thorpe touched in 1 min 45.83 s , the first time that he had swum slower in the final than in the qualifying rounds . Thorpe though would never again lose to Van Den Hoogenband in a long course 200 metres race again . Thorpe returned to victory when he led off the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay the following night , setting up a 10 m lead over American Scott Goldblatt in the first leg . Although Thorpe was unable to reclaim the individual world record , he , Klim , Kirby and Todd Pearson lowered their world record to 7 min 07.05 s , over five seconds ahead of the Americans — the largest winning margin in an Olympic relay for half a century . Thorpe rounded off his Olympics by swimming in the heats of the 4 × 100 m medley relay , and collected a silver medal when the finals quartet finished behind the Americans . Thorpe 's performances as Australia 's leading medalist for the Games were recognised when the Australian Olympic Committee granted him the honour of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony . With three gold and two silver medals , Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Olympic Games . At year 's end , he was again named by Swimming Australia as the Swimmer of the Year , but van den Hoogenband usurped him as the leading male swimmer chosen by '' Swimming World Magazine ''
closing ceremony
2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
Ian Thorpe