2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Rio Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
The day five preliminaries will feature four individual events along with women’s 800 free relay, all of which is highlighted by Michael Phelps beginning his journey to four straight Olympic titles in the 200 IM.
In 2012 Phelps won his third consecutive titles in both the 100 fly and 200 IM, something no male had ever done before. Now, if he wins a fourth in either race, he’ll pass Dawn Fraser (AUS) and Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) for the most consecutive Olympic swimming titles by any swimmer.
He would also tie Carl Lewis (long jump) and Al Oerter (discus throw) with four straight wins in the same event at the Olympics (and pass them if he won both).
In the 200 IM heats Phelps will go off in the last heat, heat 4, swimming alongside hometown favorite Thiago Pereira of Brazil.
Phelps’ countryman Ryan Lochte will go in heat 2, and the 400 IM Olympic champion from Saturday night Kosuke Hagino will swim in heat 3. Hagino will be the one man who can threaten Phelps and Lochte in this race come the final.
The women’s 100 freestyle will actually be first up this morning, with 6 heats scheduled.
Heat 5 is highlighted by newly minted world record holder Cate Campbell, defending Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo and 16 year-old sensation Penny Oleksiak.
Heat 6 will have defending World Champion Bronte Campbell swimming alongside Swedish star Sarah Sjostrom and top American contender Abbey Weitzeil.
Next up will be the men’s 200 back, where American Ryan Murphy will look to keep the American winning streak of five alive just like he managed to do in the 100 back earlier.
Murphy will swim alongside his Cal teammate Jacob Pebley in the 3rd of 4 heats, while Australian Mitch Larkin will swim in heat 4. Larkin was the favorite coming into this race, but was off form a little bit in the 100 back missing the medals.
The women’s 200 breast likely won’t be all about Lilly King and Yuliya Efimova like the 100 turned out to, but they’ll both be in the mix regardless.
King will swim in heat 2 along with world record holder Rikke Moller Pedersen of Denmark. Efimova will swim in heat 4 along with top seed Viktoria Zeynep Gunes of Turkey, and Japan’s Rie Kaneto headlines the third heat.
The women’s 800 free relay will be last on the schedule, with the Americans the heavy favorites to win but many teams in contention for a medal.
After the Americans the Aussies, Brits, Swedes, Italians and Chinese are all seeded within two seconds of each other, and some teams are capable of coming out of nowhere to surprise such as Canada.
Relay lineups will be posted once they are released, which has typically been about 50 minutes before each session.
154.91 by Emma McKeon and 155.21 by Bronte last night for the Australians. I haven’t done the math, but it seems like the US team is filled with a lot of 156 flat starts + Katie + Missy (uncertain). Is US still the favorite?
Considering team events, Phelps is already at 4 now with the 4×200 free relay, but he would still need 2 more OG to pass Gerevich who won Sabre Team on 32, 36, 48, 52, 56 and 60!! 6 consecutive Gold Medals with a World War on the middle..
Will Phelps try to tie this team record? Keep until 2024?
Milo won 6 in a row between 540 and 520 BC. Lost in 516 though!
Don’t matter, Phelps is da goat.
I’m hopping for the USA prelims they go margalis, Dirado, runge and Franklin then switch out the fastest swimmer in the prelim to join smith,Schmitt, and ledecky
They should omit Missy so she can concentrate on her 200 BA and use Jacqueline Conger.
Lol!!
Jacquelin conger fastest split of the field by almost 10 seconds with a 1:43.78
Not official but the GB heat 4×2 team is reportedly O’Connor, Miley, Coates and Hattersley
sadly I think they will struggle to qualify without Carlin
SMOC went 1.55 to take silver in 2014 commonwealth games and with her 200IM fitness, have to think she can go 1.56 ish here. Miley marginally slower. Coates should be able to go 1.58 and hattersley went 1.59 this year
First Quick Poll of the day:
Will Nathan Adrian do the Magnussen job on McEvoy?
Upvote if Yes
Downvote if No
(quick reference: in 2012 final Adrian beat the strong favorite Magnussen by 0.01 seconds)
If Adrian and Cam aren’t careful they might get upset by the trio of youngsters (Chalmers, Dressel, Scott) who are gonna attack this with nothing to lose.
Prediction : Chalmers will upset Adrian and McEvoy.