The other part of tonight will be in the pool with four finals, including Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and a relay.
Ledecky looks to claim her third medal of the games and second straight gold in the women's 200m free and is also the reigning world champion. It looks to be a race mainly between Ledecky and Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom. Both have already set new world records in other events so far this Olympics. Also in the race is Italy's Federica Pellegrini who is the current world record holder and reigning Olympic champion. Unfortunately, Missy Franklin was unable to qualify in the final after finishing 13th in the semifinal.
The men's 200m fly was already primed to be a great race, but after last night it's got major headline potential. Four years ago, South Africa's Chad le Clos just barely beat Phelps for the gold medal. Phelps was less than pleased and has been itching to get back to the race at the Olympics to make up for it. Le Clos has talked a big game, especially since Phelps made his return, and stupidly just adding fuel to Phelps' fire. Last night, you could have cut the tension in the ready room with a knife as le Clos went through like a boxing scenario as Phelps just sat there. Once on the pool deck, le Clos decided it would be a good idea to just start starring down Phelps. In the end, Phelps qualified in second and le Clos in fourth. Hungarians Tamas Kenderesi and Laszlo Cseh qualified first and third.
We'll see the return of Hungarian Katinka Hosszu in the 200m IM final tonight. She easily won the 400 IM on Saturday and the 100m back yesterday. American Maya Dirado is the top swimmer for the U.S. in the race after claiming silver in the 400 IM. Great Britian's Siobahn-Marie O'Connor qualified first ahead of Hosszu and Dirado. Also of note in the final is China's Ye Shiwen, who won gold in the event's 200m and 400m in London, and Team USA's Melanie Margalis who qualified fourth and fifth, respectively.
We've got another relay tonight in the men's 4x200 freestyle relay. The U.S. has won gold in 16 of the 24 Olympics that this race has been contested, including the last three games. Team USA is a heavy favorite to win once again even after finishing second in qualifying. The U.S. won it's heat easily with Clark Smith, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Ryan Lochte before Great Britain finished a heat later just ahead of the Americans. However, the U.S. likely swam only two of the four that will race in the final. I say "likely" because there's a chance that Michael Phelps could swim in the final. But they don't really need him. Conor Dwyer and Townley Haas, who finished third and fifth in the 200m free final, respectively, will swim in the relay along with probably Bentz and Lochte who put up good times in the prelims. It's not that Phelps couldn't handle it, even with him having another final tonight, and it more than likely takes another gold of his resume but the U.S. is in good shape without him.
In semifinal races, we'll see Nathan Adrian in the men's 100m free (he barely qualified for the semi), along with the women's 200m fly and the men's 200m breaststroke.
We might also get some diving with the women's synchronized 10m platform. Maybe the U.S. team of Amy Cozad and Jessica Parratto will be inspired by the U.S. silver in the men's event last night to grab a spot on the podium. As always, the Chinese team is favored and has won every gold since the event began in Sydney in 2000.
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