Now that both team gymnastics competitions are over, the focus shifts to individual medals. Tonight is the men's all-around final. I'm not sure exactly how much of it they'll show. The USA has its maximum two competitiors in the meet in Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks. Brooks doesn't really have a shot at a medal but Mikulak does. That is if he can but together a full meet. He has enough talent and difficulty to medal but he can't make any mistakes. The favorite is Japan's Kohei Uchimura, aka King Kohei. The guy has won six straight world all-around titles and an Olympic gold stuck in the middle there. He has a total of 19 wold championship medals and five Olympic medals. Even though he didn't qualify in first, after falling off the high bar, he's the unquestionable favorite. Unlike women's gymnastics, there are often very strong medal contenders in men's gymnastics that are from teams that didn't send full teams, didn't qualify for the team finals or are on teams that aren't in the medal conversation. So this might be the first time we see some of these gymnasts. Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev earned the top spot qualifying followed by Uchimura, Russia's David Belavasky, China's Deng Shudi, Japan's Ryohei Kato and then Mikulak. Other names to watch include Great Britian's Max Whitlock and Cuba's Manrique Larduet. It would be great for Mikulak to medal tonight and help put the team forward moving on to event finals. I just hope they show it!
Tonight features one of the most exciting races in swimming - the men's 100m free. These guys are so fast! The reigning Olympic champion is USA's Nathan Adrian and his win in 2012 was one where you had to wait for the number to pop up to know he won. In the prelims, Adrian did not swim well. In fact, he barely made the semis, earning the last lane. He made up for that and killed it in the semifinal, looking like the champion he is, to qualify in first. A pair of Australians, Kyle Chalmers and Cameron McEvoy, will provide plenty of competition as McEvoy has the fastest time this year. The U.S. also has Caleb Dressel, another member of the 4x100 gold medal relay, swimming in the final after qualifying in fifth.
The USA's Cammile Adams and Hali Flickinger both had great swims in the 200m fly prelims and both looked slower in the semifinals. However, both qualified for tonight's final in two of the last three spots. But it doesn't matter. As they say, you just need a lane. Australia's Madeline Groves, who owns the top time in the world this year, qualified in first ahead of Spain's Mireia Belmonte.
The Americans have another shot at a medal in the men's 200m breaststroke. While Japan's Ippei Watanabe set a new Olympic record in the semifinals and Great Britian's Andrew Willis qualified in second, the USA's Josh Prenot qualified in third. American Kevin Cordes, who swam the 100m race as well, won the silver medal at worlds last year and earned the fifth spot in the final. Also of note is 19-year-old Russian Anton Chupkov, who qualified sixth, but had a great swim in the prelims.
The last race of the night will be the women's 4x200m free relay. While the U.S. has won four of the last five gold medals in the race and are still the favorites, it's not as sure of a thing as previous games. The only real competition will probably come from Australia. The U.S. qualified from the prelims easily with the team of Allison Schmitt, Missy Franklin, Melanie Margalis and Cierra Runge. Usually, the two swimmers that finished top two at the trials and compete in the event individually are held to swim in the final. In this case, that's Katie Ledecky and Franklin. The U.S. chose to swim Franklin in the prelims and hold Leah Smith, who finished third at the trials, for the final. It's assumed both Ledecky and Smith will race in the finals and likely Schmitt, who had a good split in the prelims. The fourth spot is kind of up for grabs. If this was four years ago, you'd immediately think it would be Franklin but she didn't have a great time in the prelims, nor did the other two. And by great, I just mean not outstanding. I've heard there's a chance someone like Maya Dirado could be added to the relay team to help round it out. No matter who ends up going out for the final tonight, I think the U.S. has a good chance of winning another gold.
In semifinal action tonight is the women's 100 free, men's 200m backstroke, women's 200m breaststroke and the men's 200m individual medley.
The women's 100m free features American's Abbey Weitzeil and Simone Manuel who were both on the silver medal 4x100 free relay team. I'm cheering hard for Manuel and that's mostly because she's from Sugar Land and appears to love Shipley Do-Nuts as much as I do.
Lilly King is back to swim the 200m breaststroke and win another gold. Guess who's also back? Russia's Yulia Efimova. Bring. it. on!
We'll be reverted back to four years ago in the men's 200m IM with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Injuries and age have slowed Lochte down a bit and this is his only individual event at the games. However, these two were so far ahead of the rest of the field at the U.S. trials that there's a good chance they go 1-2 in this race.
Carrie Walsh Jennings and April Ross play their final match of pool play tonight against Switzerland's Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Verge-Depre. Their previous matches have started really late at 11 p.m. (EST) but this one is scheduled for 8 p.m. (EST), so I suspect we'll see this match first in primetime coverage tonight.
Outside of the NBC coverage tonight is a U.S. basketball doubleheader. The women's team plays Serbia at 2:30 p.m. followed by the men against Australia at 6 p.m. The men's game could be somewhat competitive since Australia has a number of NBA players. But let's be honest about the women - they'll win by roughly 50 points.
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