Take a look back at some of the key races from the World Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2001 ahead of our return to Japan 22 years later. Let's reminisce back to July 2001 when Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands won the inaugural women's 50m butterfly gold.
Before Sarah Sjostrom, before Ranomi Kromowidjojo, before Libby Lenton, there was Inge de Bruijn.
De Bruijn was perhaps the best sprinter of her generation, as she broke numerous world records in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events during her career, winning seven Olympic medals in 2000 and 2004.
The 50m races have only been around in the last couple of decades, with De Bruijn one of the first to capitalize on the new opportunity.
The 50m freestyle did not make an appearance at the World Aquatics Championships until 1986, with the Olympic debut occurring two years later in 1988. The 50m races for backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly did not make their debut until the turn of the century in 2001, with their Olympic debuts still inevitable.
The 50s have a relatively short history compared to the likes of the 100m freestyle, which has been contested for the men at every Olympics since 1896, with the women following soon after in 1912.
De Bruijn, having been born at the right time to race the 50m events, is widely regarded as one of the best female sprinters of all time, having had the advantage to race the sprints in the prime of her career. De Bruijn famously set world records in the 50m and 100m freestyle, and the 100m butterfly en route to three golds at the Sydney 2000 Olympics at age 27.
Preparing for the inaugural 50m
One year later, she was the heavy favourite to win all three events again at the World Championships in 2001, and with the addition of the 50m butterfly, she could be in for a big medal haul. But the success from Sydney weighed on her, and she had a shortened preparation for Fukuoka, having taken five months off after the Olympics. She capitalized on her Sydney success, cashing in on her new celebrity by doing numerous television interviews, and appearing in commercials back home in the Netherlands.
But she still had a World Championships to prepare for, where she eventually dropped the 100m butterfly in favour of the 50m. Even though she had the fastest time in the world in the 100m leading into the World Championships, her preparation had not been ideal, according to her coach Jacco Verhaeren at the time.
She was in the same training pool as another Sydney legend in Pieter van den Hoogenband and Verhaeren had taken the pair out to get away from the out-of-the-pool distractions to South Africa, Vietnam and Korea. There they were able to feel like swimmers training for a meet again.
"They both know how they came to have their good results at the Olympics and that was through hard work," Verhaeren told Swimming World Magazine in 2001. "But it's been very hard to do that this time because of all the demands on their time but they are reasonably fit."
Despite having won four medals at the Olympics in Sydney, de Bruijn had yet to win an individual medal at the World Championships, having won a single bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay in 1991.
"I'm European, Olympic and World Champion for short-course but I haven't won a World Championship in long-course and that's what I'm aiming for, even if it's only once,” de Bruijn said before the championships.
Racing in Fukuoka
The 50m butterfly final came in the middle of the meet on night five, July 26. De Bruijn had won the 100m freestyle final on night four with relative ease by almost a full second. If there were any doubts she was vulnerable to losing a gold medal in either the 50m butterfly or freestyle, those were at ease heading into the second half of the meet. She still looked like the fastest woman in the world, and her face of relief after the race told the story.
"I'm European, Olympic and World Champion for short-course but I haven't won a World Championship in long-course and that's what I'm aiming for, even if it's only once.”
If there was anyone that could beat de Bruijn, look no further than the Swedish duo of Therese Alshammar and Anna-Karin Kammerling. Kammerling was the world record holder in short course meters, while Alshammar had made the podium in both the 50m and 100m freestyles at the 2000 Olympics.
De Bruijn held the world record at 25.64, while Kammerling held the short course meters world record in the event - her time of 25.36 set at a FINA World Cup stop in Stockholm in early 2001. Kammerling was the only other swimmer to hold the long course world record for the 50m butterfly along with De Bruijn when World Aquatics started recognizing the 50m world records in 1999.
Alshammar had a lot of speed as well, and could definitely play spoiler to her teammate Kammerling or the world record holder De Bruijn.
However, Alshammar had some illnesses that forced her to scratch the 100m freestyle earlier in the meet, so her status for a podium spot in the 50m butterfly seemed to open the door for rising American star Natalie Coughlin.
Coughlin had been a favourite to make the 2000 Olympic team as a teenager for the United States, having been named the US high school swimmer of the year in 1998 by Swimming World Magazine. Couglin had just come off a tremendous first year at the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 where she most notably defeated reigning Olympic champion Misty Hyman in the 100y butterfly, establishing herself as a star domestically.
Coughlin made her first Worlds team in 2001 and went on to win a gold medal in the 100m backstroke later in the meet, but her butterfly prowess hadn’t been ready for long course yet. She was unable to match the raw speed that the women from Europe had.
The race played out exactly as expected, with the only draw being Alshammar was much closer than people thought she’d be to De Bruijn.
World Aquatics wrote at the time:
"It was a demonstration of technical superiority. Inge de Bruijn is at peak form with no challengers. ‘Not only am I in good shape, but I also had a good start,’ de Bruijn said. ‘The start is usually the deciding factor for the medals.’"
Alshammar: "It's very good. My personal best and a Swedish record. I am really a freestyler and it’s great to get a fly medal."
"I was disappointed," Kammerling said. "I have a faster time (26.29) from two years ago. My start was bad, and I couldn't make up for it during the swim."