Repeat?

[Bazza]

I was just browsing the winners from Sydney and it looks as though there will be many more repeat champions than in Sydney:

Men:
50 Metres Freestyle - Anthony Ervin & Gary Hall Jr. USA 21.98
100 Metres Freestyle - Pieter van den Hoogenband NED 48.30
200 Metres Freestyle - Pieter van den Hoogenband NED 1:45.35
400 Metres Freestyle - Ian Thorpe AUS 3:40.59
1500 Metres Freestyle - Grant Hackett AUS 14:48.33
100 Metres Backstroke - Lenny Krayzelburg USA 53.72
200 Metres Backstroke - Lenny Krayzelburg USA 1:56.76
100 Metres Breaststroke - Domenico Fioravanti ITA 1:00.46
200 Metres Breaststroke - Domenico Fioravanti ITA 2:10.87
100 Metres Butterfly - Lars Frölander SWE 52.00
200 Metres Butterfly - Tom Malchow USA 1:55.35
200 Metres Individual Medley - Massimiliano Rosolino ITA 1:58.98
400 Metres Individual Medley - Tom Dolan USA 4:11.76

Women:
50 Metres Freestyle - Inge de Bruijn NED 24.32
100 Metres Freestyle - Inge de Bruijn NED 53.83
200 Metres Freestyle - Susie O'Neill AUS 1:58.24
400 Metres Freestyle - Brooke Bennett USA 4:05.80
1500 Metres Freestyle - Brooke Bennett USA 8:19.67
100 Metres Backstroke - Diana Mocanu ROM 1:00.21
200 Metres Backstroke - Diana Mocanu ROM 2:08.16
100 Metres Breaststroke - Megan Quann USA 1:07.05
200 Metres Breaststroke - Ágnes Kovács HUN 2:24.35
100 Metres Butterfly - Inge de Bruijn NED 56.61
200 Metres Butterfly - Misty Hyman USA 2:05.88
200 Metres Individual Medley - Yana Klochkova UKR 2:10.68
400 Metres Individual Medley - Yana Klochkova UKR 4:33.59

Of all those winners, only Tom Dolan (400 IM) and Brooke Bennett (800 free) won the same event in Atlanta. That was an unusually low number of repeat winners - I guess many swimmers doubled up who weren't around in 1996 - a new era if you like.

I wouldn't bet on many of the above swimmers repeating, but many appear to have a good shot (Hoogie, Hackett, Krayzelburg, Inky, Quann, Klochkova).