Welcome to our trawl back in time with the first 10 entries in the Top 100 memories of the past decade - Jan 1, 2000 to end '09 - starting backwards from 100 downwards in chronological order from the beginning of the Millennium. The top 10 will disregard the chronological order of things and dedicate itself to events that went beyond the thrill of a singular moment, as indicated in our first entry below.

Today:  91 - 100 - the Year 2000

100. The Giants of The New Millennium: we begin with some of the people who will bring this exercise to a close when we consider the top 10 monuments to the past decade. Inky (10 l/c world records May to Sept, three Olympic crowns at the first eight-day global swim event, the Games of Sydney 2000), Thorpey (6 l/c WRs, three Olympic golds),  Hoogie (l/c WRs, two Olympic crowns and the first sub-48sec 100m free), Hackett (denies distance pioneer Kieren Perkins the triple) and Hall Jnr (gold at last, a shared one with a man who also made history, and the first of two sprint crowns). All took the year 2000 by storm and must be mentioned in place in our chronology - but we will leave it there for now - for all make it into our top 10 2000-09 pantheon.

99. May 14: Geoff Huegill, of Australia, set the first world long-course record of the year.  The sprint 'fly standard, of 23.60sec in Sydney, is noteworthy not only because it was the first 50m butterfly world record to be officially recognised as such by FINA and helped to set up the storm of a 100m 'fly battle at the same Olympic pool a few months later with teammate Michael Klim and Lars Frolander, who upset home hopes with a Games gold for Sweden, but because the man is still in the fight ten years on. Past ups and downs along the roller-coaster of a swimming career, Huegill, 30, was to be found this January inching his way closer to his dream of returning to the school of Dolphins for the first time in six years: after shedding more than 50kg since his return to competitive swimming in southern winter 2008, he won the Victoria state 50m 'fly title ahead of all but one (Matt Targett) of those who stand in his way at trials for the Commonwealth Games come March. Huegill clocked 24.20sec to defeat Commonwealth 100m champion Ryan Pini (PNG), on 24.28, and Aussie champ Andrew Lauterstein, 24.34. This entry is representative of a big change in the sport: sports funding and a rise in professionalism have given rise to an age of longevity of world-class careers that no longer count 30 as an age beyond excellence. 

98. May 15: Fiat Lux: no, not a souped-up version of a classic 500 but the Latin for 'Let there be Light'. And there was: this was the day on which Wu Yanyan, world-record holder and the first sub-2:10 (2:09.72) 200m medley woman, returned a positive doping test for 19-norandrosterone. The temptation is always to say 'good that the sport deals with cheats'. But let's be clear why this dark entry makes it on to our list: it is here as a reminder that Wu was more victim that cheat and that the anti-doping regime does not deal with the real cheats and culprits nearly as well as it might. The man at the helm of the China team I followed one day in 1995 on a tour of the Mediaeval town of Eze in southern France was coach Zhou Ming, a man who had at the time and has since committed the same sin many times over and in late 2009 could be found strutting the pool deck in charge of young athletes in China once more despite promises of a life ban in 1998. And whither the doctors and others who Ming surely worked with? In Eze, Ming walked on ahead of the China squad, never once stopping to deal with the fact that Wu was being physically sick every 20 metres or so on the ascent to the top of the 12th-century hilltop village overlooking Monte Carlo.  I asked what was wrong. A Chinese delegate told me "she has trouble with her liver". No-one stopped to help her. In that part of the world where Wu was a visitor that day, a lame dog might well have expected to receive more sympathy and care. I had not planned to accompany the China team, nor was I invited to do so: the only reason why I decided to jump on board was the presence of the man who sat smiling on the front seat of the bus that was to take the squad on tour: none other than Wolfgang Richter, former head coach of the GDR (and therein lies another tale to be told elsewhere). Not long after Wu's fall, four others were dropped from the China Olympic team at the end of a decade of shame for a nation that would host the Games just eight years on: Shan Ying, Xu Yanwei, Zhang Yan and the man in the mix, Zheng Qiliang, all tested positive for an unnamed performance-enhancing substance. China is yet to fully come to terms with the systematic abuse of young athletes in the care of coaches, doctors and local politicians who had (and there is some evidence to suggest still have) anything but the best interests of those in their charge in mind and showed a complete lack of respect for international standards of engagement in sport and the spirit of fair play.

97. May 17: Back in Brown Deer, August 1981, Mary T Meagher (USA) had stormed her way into the pantheon of the extraordinary with 'fly efforts of 57.93 and 2:05.96 over 100m and 200m respectively. In 1999, fellow American Jenny Thompson had finally got past the 100m mark. Then, on a sweet day in May, Susie O'Neill, one of the finest ambassadors a sport and nation could ever wish for, joined the school of momentous moments in the history of swimming. O’Neill swam 0.15sec inside Meagher’s 200m mark at trials in Sydney as she prepared to defend her 1996 Olympic title. When the mark fell to Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL) two years later, O’Neill said with a smile: “Records are there to be broken but I was hoping it might last a little longer”. At Atlanta, 1996, O’Neill won the 200m by the biggest margin, 2.57sec over teammate Petria Thomas, since Meagher’s 1984 victory by a record 3.66sec, and helped Australia to win silver and bronze medals in the medley and 4x200m relays respectively. Four years on at a home Games in Sydney and past that past-Meagher moment, she was expected to retain the crown days after bringing the house down with a 200m freestyle victory. Misty Hyman (USA) had other plans and improved 3.2sec during the Games to steal O’Neill’s crown. The Australian, meanwhile, added two more silvers, in the medley and 4x200m relays, before announcing her retirement. Coached by Scott Volkers in Brisbane, she won 35 Australian titles, taking her beyond the previous domestic record set by Sir Frank Beaurepaire in the 1920s. O’Neill had an unparalleled Commonwealth Games record: amid the record ten gold and five silver medals she won is another record: six of the victories came her way in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, a single-Games count subsequently matched by fellow Dolphin Ian Thorpe, at Manchester 2002. O'Neill's legacy is not restricted to a strong butterfly tradition Down Under of late (Thomas, Schipper, Galvez, Guehrer): one of the hidden gems of her career was the role she played in building up belief among Australian women when it came to taking on the world and winning relays on the biggest of occasions.

96. June 16: Four Olympic golds behind him at the helm of a glorious career, Sprint Tsar Alexander Popov stepped up for a 50m freestyle race in Moscow and clocked 21.64, the latest ripple to roll out from the Russian standard-setter. The mark confined to history the 21.81 of Tom Jager (USA) from 1990, the sprint succession completed six years after Popov took down American Matt Biondi's 100m free mark in Monte Carlo. Popov claimed silver behind Pieter Van Den Hoogenband (NED) in the 100m free at the Sydney Olympic Games a few months later in what was the fastest of his three appearances in the Olympic 100m free final (two of those resulting in gold, 1992, 1996). We will hear more from the evergreen Popov later in our list.

95. June 17: Olympic silver medallist and world champion Tom Malchow (USA) gets a stroke closer to completing his succession to the throne of world 200m butterfly racing, claiming, at Charlotte, the five-year-old world record from the man who defeated him in Atlanta 1996, Denis Pankratov (RUS), 1:55.22 down to 1:55.18. On September 19, Malchow finishes the job with a 1:55.35 Olympic-record victory (he broke that record in heats and semi-finals too) at the Games in Sydney in a final that saw Pankratov finish seventh. Two places ahead of the Russian was a 15-year-old who would come to dominate the decade: Michael Phelps, who six months on from Sydney broke Malchow's mark to set the first world record of his career with the first sub 1:55 (1:54.92) 200m 'fly effort. Aged 15 years and 9 months at the time, Phelps remains the youngest ever male world-record setter. in 2001, Phelps defeated Malchow for the 2001 world title but in 2002 the Olympic champion struck back, inflicting one last defeat on Phelps at the Pan Pacific Championships. Looking back at that moment Phelps told SwimNews in November 2009: " I can look at defeat as a motivator, that is part of the biggest thing you can look at it as: after [Tom] Malchow defeated me at Pan Pacs in 2002, I didn't ever want to lose that race again. That's something that even today still sticks in my mind. So little things like that that will get you a little extra-motivated are important. You will always have that feeling after defeat - it's a much worse feeling than after a win. Defeat really sticks with you. I look at defeat as something that's always helping. It's taught me never to have that feeling again and If I'm not prepared when I have a defeat then I will make sure next time that I am prepared."

94. September 16: Yana Klochkova (UKR) wins the first of four Olympic medley crowns. She had wowed the medley scene in Europe but in world waters looked set to join the ranks of those cheated by cheats out of a place in the pantheon: in 1997, China's Wu Yanyan and Chen Yan had blasted the world medley records apart over 200m and 400m respectively and would surely keep the world at bay. But then, the Gods of anti-doping smiled for a while. On November 9, 1998, Chen Yan tested positive for dihydrotestosterone, leaving Wu in the way. On May 15, as related above, Wu followed the fall of her teammate. Step forward Yana Oleksandrivna Klochkova. Until her advent and further rise, no woman had ever retained an Olympic or World medley title. In the four years from 2000 to 2004, she conquered both those feats. Klochkova was born in Simferopol six days before Petra Schneider (GDR) claimed the world title over 400m medley in Guayaquil in a world record of 4:36.10. That standard stood for 15 years until Yan Chen (CHN) clocked 4:34.79 at Shanghai in 1997, just after Klochkova had made a phenomenal international debut in Glasgow at the European Junior Championships. Until the Ukrainian’s arrival, only three girls had raced below 4:50 at the junior event: Daniela Hunger (GDR), Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) and Daria Schmeleva (RUS). Two of those women went onto to become Olympic champions, while the third married an Olympic champion, Schmeleva taking the hand of Popov in 1997. At the Games in Sydney, Klochkova enjoyed the finest and fastest week of swimming in her career. In 4:33.59, she established the one world record of her career and broke Schneider’s 20-year-old Olympic record of 4:36.29, from Moscow. Three days later she added the 200m crown in 2:10.68, her winning margin of 1.89 the biggest since Tracy Caulkins, the only other woman to win both Olympic medley crowns, in 1984. Three days later, Klochkova also claimed silver in the 800m freestyle in 8:22.66 behind Brooke Bennett (USA), who retained the title. Klochkova’s efforts over 400m medley earned her what was then the biggest cash prize ever awarded for competition: the European swimming league (LEN) had offered a DM100,000 “Superstar 2000” prize for any European swimmer who won the 1999 European short-course title, the 2000 European long-course title and the Olympic crown in the same event. It also gave a DM100,000 bonus of the Olympic victory was claimed in a world record. The aquatic queen of Ukraine claimed the full pot.

93.  September 17: Tom Dolan (USA) excelled against the odds: he was a chronic asthmatic - and king of the gruelling 400m medley, a mix that the laws of nature and sport suggested ought never to have been. On this day at the Sydney Olympic Games, Dolan retained the 400m medley crown and did so in world-record time: 4:11.76. He kept his crown ahead of a man who was part of a quirky facet of the event along the course of four Olympic Games: between 1992 and 2004, an American of the same first name (Eric and Erik) claimed the silver medal in the 400m medley. In 1992 and when Dolan first won in 1996, Eric Namesnik was the closest challenger (and also took two silver medals at world championships), while in 2000 and 2004, Erik Vendt claimed silver. Tragically, on January 7, 2006, while driving home from morning training as a coach to Club Wolverine in Michigan, Namesnik was involved in an accident on an icy road. He died four days later from the injuries he sustained. Known as “Snik”, he was survived by his wife Kirsten Silvester, a former Dutch swimmer, and their two children, Austin and Madison. 

92. September 18: Megan Quann, a 16-year-old from Puyallup, Washington, claimed the Olympic 100m breaststroke crown ahead of 14-year-old Leisel Jones (AUS). Since she was 14, Quann had practised visualisation, including start, start of stopwatch, race, stroke for stroke, and the stopping of the clock, beyond which there was even, from time to time in practices, the imaginary announcement of her victory and award ceremony. Quann went through that visualisation many times over the night before her big day Down Under. In the race proper, she turned third behind South Africans Penny Heyns and Sarah Poewe but, just as she had imagined, the American took the lead with 25m or so to go and went on to win gold. Jones did too: eight years later. In Sydney, the teenagers kept at bay Penny Heyns (RSA), double Olympic champion of 1996. In July 1999, Heyns was in the form of her life, setting 11 world records in the space of three months. Her summer long-course sequence started at a meet in Los Angeles on July 17 with a global mark of 2:24.69 in heats of the 200m, followed by a final in which she shaved a further 0.13sec off the record. The next day she became the first woman inside 1:07.00, by 0.01sec, in heats, and took 0.04sec off that mark in the final. She closed her summer account with world-record victories over 50m (30.83), 100m (1:06.52) and 200m (2:24.42, heat; 2:23.64, final) at the Pan Pacific Championships in Sydney (August 23 - 28). In September, back home in South Africa, she broke three short-course records, one in the 50m, two over 100m. Disaster struck in March of Olympic year, 2000: one of Heyns’ closest friends, Tara Sloan, of Canada, died after her car crashed. Heyns was with her when she passed away in hospital and it had a profound affect on the Olympic champion. At the Games in Sydney, Heyns took bronze in the 100m and finished 20th over 200m breaststroke in 2:30.17. Of deep religious conviction, Heyns said: “I am not at my best but I have given my best. You never know how you will handle disappointment until it comes your way. And I thank God that he didn't spare me that experience." She retired officially in 2001 and later became a member of the FINA Athletes’ Commission. Today she is a businesswoman, motivational and public speaker and television presenter.

91. At the Double: by the time the swimming at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games came to a close, the race pool had witnessed (beyond Inky's triple solo gold run) six other examples of swimmers winning two gold medals each in individual events in a sport where winning just the one gold medal in a career marks a crowning moment worth dining out on for the rest of an athlete's life. Inky's teammate Hoogie took the 100m, 200m free double as mentioned; Klochkova the medley crowns as noted. Then there were doubles for Brooke Bennett (USA), over 400m and 800m freestyle; Diana Mocanu (ROM) over 100m and 200m backstroke; Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) over 100m and 200m backstroke; and Domenico Fioravanti (ITA) over 100m and 200m breaststroke. Mocanu's rise was so unexpected, despite European junior titles that had been won that season in times well back from the pace she reached Down Under, that her native town of Braila had not made plans to celebrate the return of a hero who was Romania's first Olympic swimming champion. Heads were locked in fast thought and it was decided: we will buy her a car to honour the moment. Trouble was, not a single member of the teenager's family had a driving licence. They soon did. For Krayzelburg, Sydney marked the culmination of an extraordinary journey: in 1988, the Jewish parents of 13-year-old Lenny and his younger sister were keen to find a better life; they left their home in Ukraine on a trail that would lead then to West Hollywood, California, by early 1989. Krayzelburg Jr worked as a lifeguard to help his family pay their way in Los Angeles. Via coach Stu Blumkin, the young talent was put in touch with coach Mark Schubert at the University of California. To cut a long story short, as we must: in 1999, he defended his Pan Pacific titles and added the 50m crown, all three victories in world-record times (24.99; 53.60; 1:55.97).  In Sydney, his two solo golds were bolstered a victory as a member of the world-record breaking US medley relay. Four years on, Krayzelburg touched 0.32sec behind champion Aaron Peirsol in the Olympic 100m final, 0.02sec shy of a medal. Bennett became only the second woman after Janet Evans to retain the 800m crown and was in a class of her own in both her events. Fioravanti was the first Italian to win an Olympic swimming crown. In 2003, he finished seventh at the World Championships and was “officially retired” on medical advice given to the Italian federation, tests having indicated that he was suffering from a genetic heart anomaly. The Olympic champion toyed with the idea (but settled against the notion) of racing for Qatar, which at the time was offering big-money incentives to swimmers in an effort to set up a world-class team in the Gulf state.