I will try to be consistent in getting something up every day about some of the events to watch each day. Mostly, it'll be the events that will air in primetime. I hate spoilers! So you could read this and say to yourself, "This already happened. I know who won." Well, I don't and I don't want to until I watch it at night. I also won't ruin anything here for anyone. I'll wait until the next day to talk about it.
Tonight, you will see several swimming finals and semifinals, men's gymnastics qualifying and beach volleyball. I'm sure there will be some other things sprinkled in there but that's what has been advertised.
Swimming will have finals in both the men's and women's individual medley relay, the men's 400m freestyle and the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. There will also be semifinals in the women's 100m butterfly and the men's 100m breaststroke.
The 400 IM is considered like the decathlon of swimming. All four strokes (fly, back, breast and free) for 100m each. On the men's side, we are used to watching Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte battle in this one. Lochte is the reigning Olympic champion and Phelps won the race in Beijing. Neither one is swimming this event in Rio. Phelps no longer competes the event and Lochte didn't qualify at the U.S. trials. Instead, it's Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland swimming for USA. Kalisz qualified in first and Litherland in fourth with two competitive Japanese swimmers in between. The U.S. has a good chance for a medal here, or even two, but it will definitely be a battle with the Japanese.
The women's 400 IM final will have Maya DiRado and Elizabeth Beisel competing for the U.S. This is the first Olympics for DiRado, who qualified in third, and has said it will be her only games. The 23-year-old Standford graduate already has some high-powered job lined up in Atlanta after the Olympics (no biggie!). There's a good profile piece on her and how smart she is here. Beisel won silver in this event in London and qualified for the final as well. They will have stiff competition from current world champion Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, who just missed out on a world record in her swim earlier.
The two U.S. swimmers in the men's 400m freestyle are the two Con(n)ors. Conor Dwyer put together a personal best in qualifying to grab the top spot. Connor Jaeger battled reigning Olympic champion Sun Yang of China in their heat as the two qualified for the final in fourth and seventh, respectively.
The U.S. women will look to medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay for the ninth straight time. The U.S. took a somewhat disappointing bronze in London. The team of Lia Neal, Alison Schmitt, Amanda Weir and Katie Ledecky qualified the U.S. into the second spot for the final. The biggest competition will be from Australia, who set an new Olympic record in qualifying. In the relays, not everyone that swims in the qualifying has to swim in the final. With the depth of the U.S., they normally have a group swim and qualify the team and then the best swimmers, who are rested, in the final. Everyone, including the swimmers who only swam in qualifying, receives a medal but only the swimmers in the final get to stand on the podium. I'm not sure who will comprise the U.S. team tonight besides Abbey Weitzeil, Simone Manuel (she's from Sugar Land!) and probably Ledecky.
The U.S. men's gymnastics team looks to overcome a disappointing performance in London four years ago beginning with the qualification round tonight. The U.S. qualified in first in London and then finished fifth in the team final after a disastrous meet that night. The U.S. hasn't won a team gold since 1984. While Japan is easily the favorite, if the U.S. can compete without mistakes they could win a medal on Monday night. The 2016 team has three returning members from London and two newcomers, who were both alternates in 2012. John Orozco, a member of the 2012 team, was originally on this 2016 team after overcoming a slew of injuries and dealing with the death of his mother. You couldn't help but feel the emotions he showed when he was named to the team in June. Sadly, he suffered an injury in team training in July and had to withdraw. Danell Leyva, another 2012 member and the only one of the team to medal in London, was pulled up from an alternate spot to replace him. The U.S. has a lot of talent but just hasn't been able to put it all together at the right time like the women's teams have over the last several Olympics. Step one begins tonight.
We'll also get our fix of beach volleyball tonight with the first Olympic match for Kerri Walsh Jennings and new partner April Ross as they take on one of the Australian teams. Walsh Jennings has three previous gold medals with retired partner Misty Treanor, while Ross won a silver in London with her former partner. The U.S. is not favored to win gold this time because of the strength of the Brazilians, not to mention the home-country advantage in a country where beach volleyball is one of its biggest sports. I hope that is proven to be incorrect.
Outside of primetime, the women's soccer team takes on France at 4 p.m (EST) and the men's basketball team plays China at 6 p.m, (EST). These type of games don't usually air in the primetime coverage, except for some highlights, because they'd take up to much air time to show in its entirety. However, they do air, live, on one of NBCU's sister channels so that fans can still watch the whole game.
Happy watching!
No comments:
Post a Comment