It's finally a medal night for gymnastics! The U.S. men want to forget their disappointing fifth-place finish in London and win a team medal for the first time since 2008. The team qualified in second out of the eight teams that made the finals. They had several mistakes in qualifying, which is encouraging if they can fix those mistakes. However, the team has a history as of late of crumbling under pressure and a domino effect once one person falls.
China qualified in the top spot and is looking for its third straight team gold. The U.S. finished just .056 of a point behind the Chinese. Japan, who is the other favorite, didn't have the best scores in qualifying, but that is typical for them. They seem to struggle, but qualify, and then compete great in the finals, so don't let them qualifying in fourth foul you. Russia and Great Britain, who qualified third and fifth, respectively, are also hoping to medal tonight. Brazil had a great meet in qualifying and ended up sixth. While this is the first time Brazil has ever had a full men's team compete, don't underestimate the power of the home crowd. The GBR team had never medaled, or really come close to medaling, before London and finished third there. Now GBR is the reigning team silver medalists and have a good chance to claim a medal tonight. While not expected to medal, Germany qualified for the final after the help of Andreas Toba. Toba tore his ACL on the floor early on in qualifying but the team needed him to compete on the pommel horse to try and get that last spot in the final. Toba, winning the hearts of everyone, hobbled back onto the podium, nailed a solid routine and qualified his team. Unbelievable.
In the team final, only three gymnasts compete in each event and all three scores count. Very often, the team with the least mistakes wins. Not necessarily the best team or the team with the hardest skills/routines.
Back at the pool, there are finals in the men's 200m free, men's and women's 100m back and the women's 100m breaststroke.
The men's 200m free features several of the swimmers from the 400m, including Sun Yang of China and Kosuke Hagino of Japan, who qualified in first and second, respectively. American Conor Dwyer was not pleased about finishing fourth in the 400m and is clearly driven to medal in this race. He qualified in third and has been swimming really well. The other member of Team USA in the final is Townley Haas who finished sixth in the semis. I'm really hoping Dwyer medals tonight. I've heard a lot about how hard he's been training and the lifestyle changes he made to concentrate on this Olympics. Finishing just off the podium the other night had to really be tough.
While the 100m back usually features Missy Franklin, she didn't qualify out of the U.S. trials. Team USA's Kathleen Baker, a North Carolina native, won the semifinals and is one of the favorites. She'll have competition against Hungary's Katinka Hosszu, the winner of the 400 IM, and Australian Emily Seebohm. However, Baker has had all day to rest, while Hosszu swam in qualifying for the 200 IM heats earlier and also has the semi for that race tonight. American Olivia Smoliga did not have the best race in the semis but ended up qualifying in the eighth and final spot to race in the final tonight.
The USA has a great shot at two medals in the men's 100m backstroke. The two Americans, Ryan Murphy and David Plummer, qualified 1-2. Plummer is a great story. He's 30-years-old and at the Olympics for the first time. In fact, he's the oldest first time swimmer for the USA since 1904. He just barely missed on making the 2012 team (note: those two U.S. swimmers went on to finish 1-2 in London) and could have medaled if the U.S. could have sent three athletes. It would be pretty cool to watch him medal or even win! Australia's Mitch Larkin and France's Camille Lacourt will also provide competition in the race.
The women's 100m breaststroke features Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova who was just cleared of her second doping violation. This did not sit well with American Lilly King, who has said that she doesn't like cheaters, and edged Efimova to take over the top spot in the semifinals. Reigning Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte of South Africa and American Katie Meili qualified in fourth and fifth, respectively, and will also build a good race.
We'll also see Michael Phelps again in the men's 200 fly semifinal and get our first look at Missy Franklin in the women's 200m free semifinal along with Katie Ledecky, again. There will also be the semifinal in the women's 200m individual medley.
In men's synchronized 10m platform diving, the Americans will try to medal this time around after a bronze in London. David Boudia, who won gold in the individual 10m platform event in 2012, was half of that bronze team and returns with new partner Steele Johnson. What a great name, huh? As always, the Chinese are the favorites to win this event.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross are back in action on the beach to face China's best team of Fan Wang and Yuan Yue. This will likely be the last event shown in the broadcast since the match isn't scheduled to begin until 11 p.m. (EST).
No comments:
Post a Comment