Welcome to part 2 of our trawl back in time with the second 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.

Today: 81 - 90: the year 2001

90. Short-Course Shakedown: on January 28, Qi Hui, of China, clocked the first sub-2:20 effort over 200m breaststroke in a 25m pool, her 2:19.25 at the Paris round of the world cup a taste of what was to follow as more bigger names put their foot on the gas in the little pool. Our top 100 memories contain relatively few short-course moments, chiefly because most pale by comparison to the biggest of moments in a long-course environment that has  steeper, deeper roots and traditions, includes specific times when the world is honed and ready to race in the absence of absenteeism. Less (even little) room, then, in long-course, for talk of "soft targets", a term that had tripped off tongue and pen more readily in the titchy tank, where global standards reflected, to some degree, a state of affairs in which the whole world had yet to gather in peak fitness to put itself to the toughest of tests. However, in August and November of 2001, the 25m pool witnessed drops, leaps and bounds of the kind that reminded us that s/c swimming ha many a tributary to travel on the way to serious seas. In August, in the wake of the world l/c championships in Japan, Grant Hackett (AUS) tore strips off the global 800m and 1,500m s/c marks (7.25.28 and 14:10.10, the latter still standing), Sarah Price (GBR) raised the bar with a 2:04.44 200m backstroke and four of her teammates whacked out a 7:47.11 over 4x200m free, an effort that reflected the emphasis placed on relays by head coach Bill Sweetenham as he rolled out cultural change in a nation in need of hurtling along the conveyor belt of progress if it wanted to do better than stand still in a state of resignation and mediocrity. Then, on November 27 and 28 in New York, Natalie Coughlin (USA) reinforced the "way to go - long way to go" message  on s/c when she grasped the 100m backstroke mark by the throat and rattled 1.37sec of life out of it for a stunning 57.08 the day after slicing Price's 200m mark down to 2:03.62. Her 100m effort was a precursor to a bigger historic moment a year later, one that features in the next ten entries on our Top 100 list. That four-lap blast in New York was also among moments that suggested a coming-of-age for s/c swimming, though by the close of the decade the sport was left waiting yet when it came to witnessing a 25m world championship that reflected anything like the degree of intensity of its elder long-course sibling.

89. March 29, 2001: Anthony Robinson (USA) makes history in the nick of time. His name is not one that makes it into the pantheon of his sport nor indeed the ranks of the best breaststroke specialists down the years. At world l/c championships in 2001, he finished fourth in the first title race over 50m breaststroke ever held, missing a medal by 0.01sec. But at US trials and championships at Austin in spring, 6ft 5in, 21-year-old Robinson clocked 27.49 to become the first man ever to hold the official FINA l/c world record in his best event. Two days later Ed Moses lowered the mark to 27.39. By the dawn of 2008, Robinson was still to be found in the best 10 ever, at No7. Just 19 months later, he had slid on a sea of shiny suits to No34, 29 of the times above him clocked in 2009 (before a ban on the use of performance-enhancing non-textile suits and bodysuits came into force on January 1, 2010).

88. March 30, 2001: the world notices Michael Phelps, 15 years and 9 months old, for the first time on the launch pad at the start of a trajectory into the outer orbit of sporting achievement. In 1:54.92, Phelps wins the 200m butterfly US world-championship trial ahead of Olympic champion and the man whose mark he had taken, Tom Malchow. The standard is the first sub 1:55 effort and, as things turned out, the first of eight WRs in the American's signature event, a record in itself, and the first of 37 career global marks in eight different events, those two facts also records in themselves. Phelps went on to win the world 200m 'fly crown (ahead of Malchow), the first of 22 gold medals won by Phelps at long-course world championships from 2001 to 2009, again a record of records. In an interview with SwimNews in November 2009, Phelps was asked what event he was most likely to keep for his fourth Olympic campaign, London 2012? He replied "My mom probably won''t let me give up the 200 'fly . Its kind of like a family event. My sisters both swam it and that ll be a race that I made my first Olympic team in that race, my first world record ... a lot of heart and I won't let it go." You can read the first part of that interview here.

87. April 13, 2001: Qi Hui clocks a world record of 2:22.99 over 200m breaststroke at Hangzhou. The time stood out because it marked the loss of the first of three world breaststroke records held by Penny Heyns (RSA) and because it was the only world long-course record set by a woman that year. Contrast that to 44 (two disallowed) in post-Olympic 2009 for women in a long-course pool at the height of the shiny suits circus. 

86. June 29, 2001: Breaststroke becomes the last stroke to join the 100m sub-minute club among men. In Moscow at Russian Championships, and in the same pool that witnessed the first sub-15-minute 1,500m by Vladimir Salnikov in 1980, Roman Sludnov, of Omsk, clocks 59.97sec to become the first swimmer to race inside the magic minute. The barrier was broken on freestyle in 1922, butterfly in 1960 and backstroke in 1964. Sludnov, 21, had broken the world mark of Fred deBurghgraeve (BEL) in 1:00.36 at Russian trials in 2000 but his 1:00.91 in the Olympic final in Sydney in September brought him bronze behind Domenico Fioravanti (ITA) and Ed Moses (USA), who in March 2001 claimed the record in 1:00.29. A month after his big moment, Sludnov won the world title in 59.94, a world record by 0.03, ahead of Fioravanti, 2000 Olympic champion, and Moses. The Russian's 2001 efforts brought an invitation to a Sprint Cup in New York on October 20. He travelled from Siberia to Moscow for his visa, discovered that the US Embassy was closed due to a terrorist bomb threat, and went home empty handed, unable to accept his invitation to the States. He then went through lean times, failing to make the 2003 World Championships and missing the Olympic final in Athens by 0.18sec, for ninth. Four years on in Beijing, he clocked 59.87 to finish 6th in the Olympic final.

85. July 22-29: Flurry of Firsts for Fukuoka. At the 2000 FINA Congress delegates voted for a huge increase in activity. The world l/c championships from 2001 onwards would be held over eight days and include eight new events: women would race 1,500m freestyle as well as the traditional 800m, men would race 800m freestyle as well as the traditional 1,500m, while 50m sprints on backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly would be staged for both genders. The additions took the number of events on the programme to 40, from the 32 that had existed since 1986. The inaugural champions were: Ian Thorpe (AUS), 800m (7:39.16, world record); Hannah Stockbauer (GER), 1,500m; Backstroke - Randall Bal and Hayley Cope (USA); Breaststroke - Oleg Lisogor (UKR) and Luo Xuejuan (CHN); Butterfly - Australian Geoff Huegill (23.44, world record) and Inge De Bruijn (NED). Ian Thorpe (AUS) was the king of the meet (see last entry on today's list). De Bruijn won the same three crowns that had delivered Olympic glory the year before. Beyond her triple, there were double golds for Yana Klochkova (UKR), 400m free and medley; Hannah Stockbauer (GER), 800m and 1,500m free; Luo Xuejuan (CHN), 50m and 100m breast; Petria Thomas (AUS), 100m and 200m 'fly; and Anthony Lee Ervin claimed the 50m/100m sprint free double for the US. In 2000, Ervin, of Burbank, California, had become the first man of African-American extraction to race for the US at an Olympic Games; the first to win an Olympic swimming title (50m freestyle) and the first man in any event, with teammate and Sydney 2000 roommate Gary Hall Jr., to share an Olympic swimming crown. The sprinter did not take kindly to racial stereotyping, however. Born of a three-quarters African-American father and a white Jewish mother, Ervin said: "I feel the labels, in a way, belittle who I am. I’m proud to be black. I’m proud of my Jewish heritage. I’m proud of everything that makes me who I am. All of that makes me a unique person, just like anyone else." Coached by Mike Bottom, at University of California, Berkeley, and with Hall Jr’s sprint group in Phoenix, Arizona, Ervin sold his gold medal on Ebay for $17,100 in March, 2005, with the aim of donating the money to UNICEF for tsunami relief. A practicing Zen Buddhist, Ervin studied classical music after retiring in February 2004.

84. July 25: Seiko Killer Nightmare and the leap-frog relay that ended in gold for thrid-placed Britain, retrospective commemorative gold for the US and disqualification for the first quartet home - Australia. All week long, the world championships were plagued with failures in the Seiko timing system, more specifically, faults with some touch pads. That fact played a part in one of the most memorable, dramatic and entertaining farces in world championship history. The 4x200m freestyle for women ended in drama, upset, tears, fury, fist-thumping, barrier-jumping, name-calling, protest and a result unique in swimming history. First up, the scoreboard showed that Australia had won, then that they had lost the gold, because Petria Thomas had leapt into the water to celebrate before Italy had finished racing. Act 2, scene one: the US was next to lost the gold (the Seiko timing suggested a false-start of the US); scene two, a Britain quartet of Nicola Jackson (older sister of Jo, who would break the world 400m free record in 2009), Janine Belton, Karen Legg and Karen Pickering, celebrated  the first world long-course crown ever won by that nation's women. Don Talbot, head coach to the Dolphins, leapt over the barrier and was on the deck berating officials left, right and centre faster than you could say "a Bushman's trumpet". Oceans of calories were wasted: Australia's protest was rejected. Next up, the US protest. There was video evidence to suggest that there had been no false start and the Seiko ghoul had struck again but video evidence was not permitted at the time, and it would be eight years before FINA would get round to rectifying that situation. Bill Sweetenham, head coach to Britain, pressed the case for his girls and stuck to the line: "... rules are rules and that's what happened - we would not expect Australia or the US to behave otherwise if the shoe was on the other foot". The Brits got to keep the gold medal though that was not the end of it. Some months later, FINA issued a press release to tell the world that the US quartet, 2.16sec quicker than the official champions on the day, would be awarded commemorative gold medals in recognition that there were serious problems with the Seiko timing system in several races at the championships. 

83. July 29: Dolphins Leap. The tide of world swimming turned in Fukuoka when Australia - with coach Don Talbot leading troops led by the mighty Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett at the very peak of their powers - defeated the USA on gold medal count, 13 to 9 to win the meet. The USA claimed three more medals overall than Australia and still list the meet as won. It was won by the Green and Gold on the measure that counts most by any standards and means of counting. Not since the Olympic Games of Melbourne 1956 had the Australians defeated the Americans in the race pool on the big occasion team-wide. The young Talbot had driven himself to those Games 45 years before “in a beaten up Holden sedan with the rear springs beginning to protrude”. In Fukuoka, when he finished his final night team talk, the Green and Gold shoal rose to their feet and applauded. And kept applauding, whistling, cheering and then came the tears as they realised the enormity of the journey. "Fantastic. It was a very special moment," said John Devitt, medallist back in 1956, champion in a human eye-timing controversy in 1960. When I bumped into Talbot at the airport on the way home and asked him about the win, he was cool and collected. But when I asked about the post-win team meeting and what had transpired there - a standing ovation for the head coach - he was barely able to speak as tears welled up in his eyes towards the end of a long, success-stacked, roller-coaster of a journey.

82. July 29: There are some singular, extraordinary moments that stand head and shoulders above the realm of the excellent. In Fukuoka, Ian Thorpe shone across the board (next entry), but it was Grant Hackett who dazzled us by going the longest distance in a time that stands yet as a target for any who dare. In a generation-leaping 14:34.56 over 1,500m, Hackett axed 7.1sec off the world record of the man he had kept at bay for the Olympic gold a year earlier, teammate Kieren Perkins, 1992 and 1996 Olympic champion.  Hackett's opening split of 54.19 would have beaten John Devitt’s 100m free victory in Rome 1960 by a second. One of the symbols of greatness in sport is the aura of invincibility that is developed by times on the clock and time spent at the top. Hackett stands on a high plinth in the pantheon of sport. In Fukuoka the Denis Cotterell-trained ironman also claimed  silver medals behind world records set by Thorpe in the 400m (his 3:42.51 was still second fastest ever in 2008) and the 800m, by 1.18sec, as well as a gold alongside Thorpe, Michael Klim and William Kirby for a 4x200m world record of 7:04.66, a sensational moment in itself. More on Hackett later in the list and when we get to a top 10 with a twist.

81. The best of the year we save until last: six gold medals for Ian Thorpe. His follow-up to a sensational Sydney 2000 brought Thorpe plaudits as the "greatest swimmer of his era," a couple of years before Michael Phelps went into super-charged mode. If six gold medals in Fukuoka set a record in itself at the time, the quality of Thorpe's victories have few parallels: over 200m (1:44.06), 400m (3:40.17), 800m (7:39.16), every one a world record, while he anchored Australia to three relay golds, the 4x200m freestyle relay a standout world record of 7:04.66 (off the then fastest-ever 200m relay split of 1:44.14), and played a pivotal part in Australia's historic, overall defeat over the USA on gold-medal count. The Thorpedo fired in the pool and proved himself to be a star on dry land, his professionalism a tribute to coach Doug Frost, who taught his pupil to pay keen regard to detail and discipline. Much more on Thorpe later in the list and in our top 10. 

The Top 100:

Part I: 91 - 100, the year 2000.