Tom's take

Van den Hoogenband has edge in dream battle with Phelps, Thorpe

Athlete Analysis Tom Dolan Neither Michael Phelps nor Ian Thorpe won in their first battle Sunday, and the same fate may await them on Monday. AP

Tom Dolan, a two-time U.S. Olympian who took back-to-back gold medals in the 400 IM at Atlanta and Sydney, will analyze races for SI.com throughout the Games. Today, he breaks down four Sunday races and previews Monday's 200-meter freestyle final featuring Michael Phelps, Australia's Ian Thorpe and defending Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands.

Men's 200 freestyle final

Rarely do you see such huge names going head to head like this. Normally, the great athletes make their names in their own events and never cross over against each other. The only other instance I can recall is back in the day when Matt Biondi and Tom Jaeger used to race one another, and then Alex Popov came up in 1992 and all three raced each other.

You can make an argument that it's none of these guys' best event, except for maybe Pieter van den Hoogenband. I don't know if (Australia's) Grant Hackett has a shot to win the gold, but he definitely has a shot to medal. The other three guys all have a shot to win.

Right now, I think Thorpe looks terrible. In his 400 free, he looked off. Technically, he has one of the best strokes ever in freestyle, but he looked tight coming home in the 400. Granted, he still won because he's so good, and he's been so far ahead of the world for so long that he was able to hold off and win. You can't short-change the fact that he won the gold medal, but his stroke looked different in the last 50 meters or so. It was hard to tell in the 4x100 relay how much time he made up because the Australians were behind and swimming in Lane 1.

Van den Hoogenband looks like he's swimming really well. I thought Thorpe looked good in his 200 semifinal, as did Phelps, but I thought van den Hoogenband looked really good. Of the three, he looked the best. He's a different type of swimmer. He has much more easy speed up front, meaning he's flat-out more of a sprinter than Thorpe and Phelps. The interesting part of the race is how he uses that to advantage. I would imagine he would go out much harder and just try to get out ahead of Thorpe and Phelps and hang on. Thorpe and Phelps are probably better closers than van den Hoogenband, but he has way more speed up front

His Pick: That's a tough call. I'm trying not to be biased, because obviously I want Phelps to win. If you would base it right now, I think Phelps and van den Hoogenband look better in the water than Thorpe does. I think van den Hoogenband, for this event, is probably more suited with the skills that he has. This is probably his best event, and you can make the case this is Phelps' fifth-best event. My gut says it will be three those guys. I think Hackett will end up not medaling. Based on what's happened so far, it looks like van den Hoogenband is really on and would probably be the favorite as of right now.

Men's 4x100 freestyle relay

It was a pretty neat thing to see South Africa win the gold in this relay. No matter how much pride you have in your country, you can't help but feel happy for them. Those guys had a lot of pressure and swam out of their minds.

Roland Schoeman swam the first leg unbelievably. People don't realize those guys are great swimmers and by no means am I shocked they won. But I am shocked they broke the world record by a half second. They obliterated the world record. The guy who swam fourth -- Ryk Neethling -- I swam against him in college and he used to be a distance swimmer before transforming himself into a sprinter.

Those guys the past two years have been building and building. For people who don't follow the sport, it will be a big shock. But for people who follow the sport, the real shock is the time.

As for Michael, I totally agree with the decision for him to be on the relay. I think he swam well. Unfortunately, Ian Crocker was a little off in the leadoff and that kind of hurt us. But Ian is a great swimmer and he will come back and prove himself later in the week. It's very hard when you're swimming the first leg not to press and just let it flow.

Men's 100 breaststroke final

Kosuke Kitajima had an unbelievable world championships last year and he's been gradually building since 2000. It was really windy at the arena Sunday night and that makes a big difference in the 100 breaststroke when the wind blows like that. I didn't think anyone would break a minute because it was too windy.

Brendan Hansen swam a great race, but I think the pullout after the turn is where Kitajima really won the race. He got a half a body length on the pullout and that's where he won it. They swam almost equal the whole time. It was a great race. I don't think either of them should feel bad.

Women's 100 butterfly final

Jenny Thompson looked a little tight and I'm sure she'll be a little disappointed. At the same time and keeping the big picture in perspective, she has done some amazing things for our country in the water and that can never be erased. We would have loved to have gotten a medal there but I think the Australian girl (Petria Thomas) had a great race and a great finish. Give her credit. She's come back from shoulder injuries and has been around for a while. The Australian women are swimming out of their suits so far.

Women's 400 freestyle final

We did not have a spectacular night in terms of results, but I thought Kaitlin Sandeno getting third from Lane 7 was a great result. She has two medals in two days and she's swimming terrific.