Tonight will be a lot of swimming, some diving and the start of women's gymnastics!
The U.S. women will have no trouble qualifying to the team final on Tuesday night and will likely qualify in first. Really, the bigger implications for the team tonight is who will qualify for the two all-around spots and into the various event finals. If it were allowed, all five of these gymnasts could qualify in the top 24 for the all-around. However, it's that "two per country" rule. There are five members on the team and four compete in qualifying on each apparatus. To qualify for the all-around final you, obviously, have to compete in all four events in the qualifying round but at the same time the coaches have to put up the four best in each event to qualify the team. Each gymnast was picked specifically because of what she could do on certain events for the team not necesairly how they can compete individually.
There's no question Simone Biles will compete in all four events as she's favored to win the all-around after three straight world championships. The U.S. is certainly talented enough to go 1-2 in the all-around final, so there will definitely be another gymnast competing all four events. The question is who? I've read that it'll likely be Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, your two returners from 2012 who both claimed individual honors in London as well. But 16-year-old Laurie Hernandez finished second at the Olympic trials in the all-around and could easily place too. Even if bar specialist Madison Kocian competes only on one event that means that one other will be cut short an all-around spot tonight, But, really, it's more an issue of having too much talent for the U.S. opposed to other countries that are just trying to qualify.
As far as event finals, Biles is likely to qualify for three (vault, beam and floor), Kocian and Douglas on bars, Raisman on beam and floor, which would leaver Hernandez out due to the two per rule. I'm very interested to see what the lineup ends up being. It will then be cut to three in the team finals at which time all three scores will count, i.e. you can't drop a low score if someone falls.
One team you will not see in the competition is Romania. This is a big story in the gymnastics world because Romania, a team that has won a team medal the last 10 straight games, failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 1976. Since 2004, the Romanian program has been in a slow decline, held up by a few talented gymnasts with not many fresh faces coming in strong on the scene. The team failed to qualify in its two last chances leading up to the games. It'll be interesting to see if the Romanians can get its program back together and competitive by 2020 or if we've lost that legacy forever.
In the women's 3m springboard synchronized diving event, while the U.S. claimed a silver in London, they did not qualify in this event. China, who won every gold handed out in 2008, has Wu Minxia looking to become the first diver to win five Olympic gold medals.
Lots of action in the pool tonight that will be highlighted by Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky.
After being a part of the women's 4x100 free relay last night that won the silver medal, Ledecky is going after her first of many individual golds of these games. She set a new Olympic record and came very close to breaking her own world record in the prelims of the 400m free earlier today. Needless to say, she qualified in the top spot. She is considered a very heavy favorite in this event. Leah Smith, the other American in the race, qualified in third and also has a good shot at medaling. There will not be a defending champion in this event. Sadly, the 2012 gold medalist Camille Muffat from France died in a plane crash in 2015 while filming a French reality television show in Argentina.
The U.S. has both swimmers in the 100m breaststroke final in Cody Miller and Kevin Cordes. They are looking to take down world record holder Adam Peaty of GBR after Miller qualified in second and Cordes in fifth for the final.
Dana Vollmer looks to defend her gold from London in the women's 100m fly final. In 2012, she won gold by setting a new world record. Since 2012, she took some time off, became a mother 15 months ago and now says she's a #momonamission to win another gold medal. While she was out, Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom broke her world record and just broke Vollmer's Olympic record in the semifinals yesterday. Sjostrom qualified in first, while Vollmer qualified in fourth.
The fourth and final gold handed out tonight will be the men's 4x100m free relay. This is the one that was the epic race in Beijing where the U.S. came back to beat France in the last leg. The U.S. has won gold every time in this event except for 2000 and 2012 when Australia and France won, respectively. The USA looks to reclaim that gold after qualifying in second, beating both France and Australia in the prelims, with Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Held, Blake Pieroni and Anthony Erivin (a 35-year-old) earlier today. It's likely Nathan Adrian, Caleb Dressel and Phelps will swim in the final along with one of the swimmers from qualifying. In the last world championships in 2015, the U.S. had a very poor race in the prelims and did not qualify for the finals for the first time. This was considered a big disappointment, to say the very least. However, the team swam well earlier and has rebounded from the overall poor performance at worlds and is back in the medal hunt. This is always one of the best races of the Olympics. Australia, France, the USA and Russia all look to be factors in this race.
There will also be the semifinals for the men's 200m freestyle, women's 200m breaststroke, men's 100m backstroke and women's 100m backstroke.
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