ATHENS, Greece - Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands successfully defended his Olympic 100-meter freestyle title Wednesday night.

Van den Hoogenband won the gold in 48.17 seconds — 13-hundredths of a second faster than his winning time at the Sydney Games four years ago.

Van den Hoogenband’s winning time was 48.17, just ahead of South African Ronald Schoeman’s 48.23.

Australia’s Ian Thorpe earned bronze in 48.56, despite swimming in a far outside lane because he had the slowest qualifying time. It was a turnabout of the 200 free, in which Thorpe edged van den Hoogenband for the gold.

Schoeman, who trains at the University of Arizona, took silver after leading at the turn for the final 50 meters.

“I’m not sure when I caught him, I was in a kind of trance, in a flow, doing my job and not thinking,” said van den Hoogenband. “I’m so happy, really. I was touching the wall and the camera was zooming in and I’d won. It’s great.”

Schoeman was philosophical about coming so close to another gold only to be denied in the last few meters.

“People might say I lost the gold medal, but I see it as winning the silver,” he said.

“Pieter had to swim the race of his life to catch me,” he added.

The Flying Dutchman was ecstatic — letting out a yell, pounding the water with his arm, skimming over a lane rope — while the orange-clad fans from Holland chanted “Pieter! Pieter! Pieter!”

“I feel I’m drunk,” Hoogie said. “It so much harder to defend your title.”

The 100 final lacked some of its star power. Two-time champion Alexander Popov of Russia failed to get out of the semifinals and American Gary Hall Jr., who won bronze in Sydney, didn’t even qualify for the event at the U.S. trials. The two who did, Jason Lezak and Ian Crocker, were eliminated in the preliminaries.

“I think everyone was kind of shocked that there were no Americans and no Alex Popov,” Thorpe said.

The Dutchman, who holds the world record in the 100, earned his third medal in Athens. He already has won silvers in the 200 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay.

Thorpe won his fourth medal of these games. He beat Van den Hoogenband for gold in the 200 freestyle, won the 400 freestyle and helped Australia to a silver medal in the 800 freestyle relay.

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