Welcome to part III of our trawl back in time with the third 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 or event.

Today: 80 - 71 - the year 2002

80. February 26: Blood tests became part of the out-of-competition testing procedures for aquatic sports, making FINA the first international federation to make such a move. In 2002, an Extraordinary Congress in Moscow confirmed world swimming's agreement that blood and urine samples would be used to test for the presence of the synthetic hormone erythropoietin (EPO), darbopoietin (dEPO) and/or related substances. It was a big step in the battle on doping led by coaches, some swimmers and media, the pressure of those three forces driving FINA, finally, to take a lead role on the political level in the war in the wake of the GDR days of woe and the China crisis of the 1990s. That process was best summed up in 1999 by John Leonard, President of the World Swimming Coaches Association, on April 2, 1999, at an Extraordinary Congress of FINA called to deal with doping: "In 1995 ... New Orleans, I declared a need for a war on doping; I had only the faintest hope that that war would become FINA's war. At this Extraordinary Congress, President Mustapha Larfaoui called it FINA's War on Doping ... Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah." But choppy waters lay ahead: the 14th FINA World Sports Medicine Congress, held in Moscow in 2002, was followed up by an extraordinary Congress was called in Barcelona in 2003 for FINA to debate the harmonisation of its rules with those of the World Anti-Doping Agency in preparation for accepting an international WADA Code. That led to an inevitable weakening of some of the measures that FINA had agreed to in order to shore up its fight against rogues in a sport in which suspicions of poor practice ran deep. The message from Manchester to Berlin in a week that saw Commonwealth Games and European Championships help simultaneously (a German TV deal having altered the dates of the European event with DSV and LEN acceptance with no recognition of the fact that such a move would keep one of the founding members of European Swimming, Britain, away from the summer showcase event for the first time in history) could hardly have been more stark: "Play True" screamed from the golden t-shirts of all 41 members of the world's swimming superpower, Australia, on the last night of racing in England. Supplied by WADA, the shirts were worn on the back of a set of results at the European championships in Berlin that stirred up anti-doping sentiments. The Green and Gold shoal arrived at the Commonwealth Games as the world's leading swimming nation, a year after they stole the crown from the United States at the world  championships in Japan in 2001. They left Manchester unsure of their status, however: comparing results in Manchester and Berlin, Commonwealth swimmers would have won five men's races and three women's races in the German capital's newly opened Europapark Schwimm-und Sprunghalle. The difference in time standards in Manchester and Berlin was unavoidable. Then head coach to a born-again Britain, Bill Sweetenham, said that swimming was engaged in an "en-masse pharmaceutical war" that had plunged it "back to the days of the GDR and China ... the one thing we can all feel great about is that this [Manchester] is a drugs-free competition. It's hard to set goals when you feel that some of the world aren't living by that standard ... the feeling of the coaching fraternity of the clean nations are that some of the others have got their hand in the cookie jar." His words were echoed by a fair number of the world's leading coaches and swimmers in 2002.

79. March 20: Aaron Peirsol (USA) takes down his first world record on his way to assuming the role of world No1 and, down the line, the backstroke specialist of the decade. In 2000, 17-year-old Peirsol won the 200m back at US Olympic trials and came close to causing another upset at the Games proper, though Lenny Krayzelburg prevailed on his way to three golds at Sydney 2000, leaving the teenage pretender to return home with silver and ultimate ambition ahead of him. In 2001, Peirsol claimed his first world crown, over 200m. Then, on March 20, 2002, in Minneapolis Peirsol clocked 1:55.15 to shave 0.72sec off one of the three global marks set by Krayzelburg at the Pan Pacific Champs in Sydney in 1999. Peirsol's effort was a warm-up for two more world records he would set a couple of weeks later at the world short-course championships in Moscow (1:51.17 for the 200m backstroke crown, and 3:29.00 as a the anchor to the victorious US medley quartet). Much more on Peirsol further along our list of top memories.

78. April 4: Emma Igelstrom settles an argument: the Swedish ace wins the world s/c 50m breaststroke crown in 29.96, the first sub-30-sec effort and one that marks the 10th world record in the event in four months, since Luo Xuejuan (CHN) clocked 30.56 on December 3, 2001. The standard went on a game of pass the parcel as follows: Luo to teammate Wei Li, Igelstron,  Britain’s Zoe Baker twice, back to Luo then to Igelstrom and back to Baker before Igelstrom went better twice more. In Moscow, Luo took silver and Baker bronze. Later in the year, Igelstrom, a 22-year-old from Karlshamn won the 50m and 100m breaststroke titles at the European Championships in Berlin. The following year she claimed silver in the 50m at the European s/c championships but retired soon after. It was later revealed that she had suffered from bulimia nervosa. Neither Igelstrom nor Baker made it to the Olympic Games two years on but Luo took the 100m crown in Beijing.

77. July 30: Ian Thorpe is the swimmer of the year once more. At the Commonwealth Games in Manchester he sets out on a trajectory to a record six golds and one silver with a stunning world record of 3:40.08 in the 400m freestyle. There was an awkward moment at the end of the Thorpedo trail: post-meet, the 19-year-old met the media ... cameras trained, lenses focused, tape-recorders at the ready. "Ian, have you got the medals?" whispered Ian Hanson, the Australian press chief. Thorpey's eyes widened a little, his broad shoulders stiffened and a faint blush coloured his cheeks as he murmured: "Er - no, I've left them back at the village." It was a rare slip (there'd be a much bigger slip in 2004 on the way to immortality in Athens...) for a teenager who, with coach Doug Frost, had counted the number of footsteps and steps from block to underground warm-down pool at Manchester's Aquatics Centre on a previous visit, taken the count home and walked the route every day in training until arriving at the Games, with a view to making sure that the engine behind his turn of speed - his legs and famous feet - would not only hold out but send him on his way into uncharted waters. The six golds and a silver laid down further milestones in a career that in the previous four years had notched up 13 world records and 20 titles at Olympic, world and Commonwealth levels. In Manchester, Thorpe told us that he could not name a highlight because there had been no lows in Manchester, nor would he take home with him an abiding memory because "it was such a great Games...with many experiences". He doubted he would be back to race in 2012 if a London Olympic bid took flight. By then, he said, he would be doing "something else in my life that consumes me as much as swimming has". But what of Athens and Mark Spitz's seven, he was asked at a time when the promise of Michael Phelps was a doodle on a pad and a daily chore for Bob Bowman. Thorpe said he would be looking at which events to go for but he did not think seven possible. He paused, then added: "It'll never be done again." Seven may have been ruled out but Thorpe made no secret of an ambition in life to be ten out of ten at all times when it came "to doing the best job I can possibly do and trying my best every day". So how many marks did he award himself in Manchester? "Eight and a half, which is pretty good, I'd say," said a man about to leave his teenage years behind him.

76. August 3: Franziska Van Almsick strikes back in Berlin to get beyond her own awesome best eight years on along a roller-coaster. At the 1992 Olympic Games, at 14, the Berliner won four medals, two silver (200m freestyle, 4x100m medley) and two bronze (100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle). Germany was wowed. Over the next two years, Van Almsick attracted an estimated $7m in sponsorship. A record six gold and one silver at the 1993 European Championships was followed by a controversial world title over 200m freestyle in Rome, 1994: one of the most sensational and aggressive performances I have witnessed (she stopped the clock with her fist), Van Almsick's Rome victory was dubbed the "first world swim title to be bought". She had finished ninth in the heats and relied on a place in the final on teammate Dagmar Hase's withdrawal (in return for a no-expense-spared holiday for her and her boyfriend). In the final, Van Almsick, in lane 8, stopped the clock with that fist and a scream for a world record of 1:56.78, 0.09sec ahead Lu Bin (CHN), who within a month would test positive for steroids as the China crisis gathered momentum. The German then had to settle for an Olympic silver behind Claudia Poll (the Costa Rican who fought and lost a battle to clear her name after she returned a positive nandrolone test in the year in focus here, 2002). The events of 1996 knocked Van Almsick for six in 1996. It looked as though she would never fully recover. But in 2001-02, as a home European champs beckoned, she took up  training with another former GDR coach, Norbert Warnatsch, in Berlin and enjoyed a sensational comeback for home glory. Her Berlin campaign also included victory in the 100m free and gold in world-record time with three German teammates in the 4x100m free relay. One of the most decorated swimmers in history, Van Almsick retired after her fourth Olympic Games in Athens with 17 European crowns, two world titles and 10 Olympic medals, none gold. She is now works at the helm of a body that seeks to secure support and financial backing for German athletes in all Olympic sports and is married with one child.

75. August 4: At a speedy Euro champs in Berlin, Poland's Otylia Jedrejczak gets 0.03sec past Susie O'Neill's WR over 200m 'fly, with a 2mins 05.78sec, just two years after the Australian had got past American Mary T Meagher, queen of the 'fly record books for 19 years. Over in Manchester at the Commonwealth Games and in retirement, O'Neill said: "I felt like crying. That's life - it was going to be broken one day anyway. I'm actually pretty happy I'm not swimming any more because looking at those results in Berlin it's like so fast - you can't keep up with that. I hope it's clean." Her comment was not aimed specifically at the Pole but was made in general on an evening where she sat with the Dolphins in WADA "Play True" T-Shirts to reinforce a message of concern expressed by leading coaches and swimmers when comparing time standards at events either side of the English Channel. Jedrejczak went onto win the 2004 Olympic crown - and that together with events surrounding her gold medal returns the Pole to our list of memories further down the line.

74. August 13: Coughlin cracks the minute. At the USA National Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Natalie Coughlin becomes the first woman to race inside the magic barrier over 100m backstroke. Her time, of 59.58, brings one of five titles, a record she shared with legendary Tracy Caulkins, on her way to winning four gold and two silver medals at the Pan Pacific Championships. Coughlin's effort took out the suspicious 1:00.16 mark set by unheralded He Cihong on her way to victory at the 1994 world championships in Rome, a month after which 11 Chinese athletes, including seven members of the Rome squad, tested positive for steroids. He Cihong clocked a season best of 1:02.98 in Olympic year 1996. In 2007, Coughlin chipped the world mark down to 59.44 on her way to the world crown. As the shiny suits era closed on December 31, 2009, that 2007 effort had slipped from best to 51st performance ever.

73. August 15: Phelps gives notice to the wider world of his versatility: in 4:11.09, the 16-year-old takes down the world 400m medley record of 1996 and 2000 Olympic champion Tom Dolan. He does so in Fort Lauderdale at US nationals and trials for the Pan Pacific Championships. At that event, in Yokohama, Phelps won both medley titles but was defeated in the 200m 'fly by Tom Malchow. That defeat was critical to moulding the man who would come to dominate headlines in his sport and all Olympic sport in the past decade. (see Phelps's comments on the meaning of defeat). If the 200m 'fly was Phelps signature event (first Olympic selection, the event that made him the youngest ever world record holder, in 2001, and delivered his first world crown, in 2001), then the 400m medley held for a long time similar star status as one of the swimmer's most cherished memories: it was the event that in 2004 would bring him the first of 14 Olympic gold medals - and in world record time to boot. Much more on Phelps later.

72. October 2: In Busan at the world university Games, Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) became the first man to break 2mins 10sec over 200m breaststroke with a 2:09.97. A year later, in the midst of the 2003 world championships and two crowns for the Japanese star, Kitajima’s style provoked protest from the USA that he was using a butterfly action underwater out of turns. That story would reach a dramatic climax on the deck at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games - and more of that in its time. In 2002, kitajima's effort got past the ahead-of-its-time 2:10.16 of 1992 Olympic champion Mike Barrowman. The American's time was still fourth best ever at the dawn of the shiny suits era. By the time non-textiles and bodysuits were banned a little over 20 months later, Barrowman was no longer among the 30 fastest swimmers ever. Kitajima, meanwhile, had began swimming at three when his father had a particular kind of punishment for a naughty boy: he would throw his son in the pool. It put the fight in a boy who would become a quadruple Olympic champion. 

71. December 8: Thomas Rupprath joins Natalie Coughlin in a rare back-'fly double club. On November 22 and 23, Coughlin (USA) set three world s/c records over 100m, first on 'fly (56.34), then back (56.71), then medley (58.80) at East Meadow. Then on December 8 in Melbourne, Rupprath (GER) clocked 50.58 over 100m backstroke to add to a 2002 world-record collection that had begun with a 50.10 on 'fly on January 27 in Berlin. That specific double achievement is very rare in swimming. Indeed, the only other examples of swimmers who held world marks on backstroke and butterfly are Gary Hall (USA), father of the double Olympic sprint free champion, who held 200m backstroke and butterfly records in 1969-70, and Kornelia Ender (GDR), who held 100m back and 'fly marks in 1976. Her one-time husband, backstroke legend Roland Matthes was also pretty sharp on 'fly, claiming silver in the 100m European championship title race in  1974 and finishing 4th and 5th respectively in the Olympic finals of the 100m 'fly in 1972 and 1976, missing a medal by 0.13sec the first time and 0.46sec the second time round.

The Top 100:

Part I: 91 - 100, the year 2000.

Part II: 81 - 90, the year 2001.