One of the coolest features of our new SurveyMonkey-powered Pick ‘Em Contest is the vast reporting abilities that it provides.
With that, two of the most contentious races among our earliest pickers are the men’s 100 fly, and the men’s 100 free.
For the men’s 100 free chart, seen below, we’ve narrowed it down just to picks for 1st and 2nd. The orange bar those who are being picked to win, and the blue bar is those being picked for 2nd, so the tallest overall lines are the picks to make the team.
Our readers have picked strongly against seed, in fact pegging in reverse order the top three seeds; only a third of the responses received so far think that Jones will even make the team.
In the men’s 100 fly, things are even more contentious, especially with Ryan Lochte now teasing with an entry (though, most feel already that he’s not going to swim all 11 entries).
The top of the blue bar shows how many our readers think will make the team. Top of the orange bar is how many our pickers think will win the event next week.
Note also how many are picking swimmers from outside of the top ten to finish in the top four. One has to imagine at least some of those picks of “Other” go to Matt Grevers.
And three others, involving one young superstar Ms. Katie Ledecky.
First, in the 200 free, though Ledecky has shown a lot of new speed, she hasn’t convinced everybody. Only 4.7% of respondents think she’ll win the race, whereas 68% have picked with the Olympic Champion Allison Schmitt. Throw in Missy Franklin, and those three got all of the first-place votes so far (though Megan Romano was able to snag a few runner-up, individual swim picks – 2.7% of them, to be exact).
Look across the top of the blues for the individual swimmers, and look across the top of the orange for the picks of those who will be locked into relay swims by placing in the top four.
Second, check the slightly longer 400 free. Just over half of respondents thus far think that she’ll actually beat the Olympic silver medalist Allison Schmitt, and more respondents (94.6%-86.1%) think Ledecky will make the team altogether.
In the 800 free, we’ve unstacked the bars to show just how truly dominant folks expect Ledecky, the American Record holder and Olympic Champion, to be in that race. So far, all but four sets of picks have tabbed Ledecky; the other four like another young potential-star Becca Mann.
