2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Day 1 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
After two days of competition, six world records have fallen and eight gold medals have been up for grabs. The United States leads the charge with eight total medals including two gold, and will be looking to add continue their dominance in the pool this morning.
Up first is Katie Ledecky in the 200m freestyle. She’s not the absolute favorite in this event, having to face competitors such as Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and world record holder Frederica Pellegrini. What Ledecky does have going for her is that it appears as though her speed is where it needs to be right now.
Ledecky split a sub 53-second 100 freestyle on the silver medal winning 4×100 free relay, proving that the 200 might be within reach her. Her 400 world record from last night only puts icing on the cake.
Michael Phelps will be competing in the heats of the men’s 200m butterfly shortly after where he’s not exactly the favorite. It looks to be a three man race right now between Phelps and his two rivals: Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. Both have said their fair share of talk about Phelps making this one of the most anticipated races of the games.
The last event on the docket this morning will be the women’s 200m IM where world record holder Katinka Hosszu is the clear favorite. She dominated the field in the 400m IM on the first night of competition, smashing the world record and claiming her first Olympic medal.
WOMEN’S 200m FREESTYLE
Start List: click here
Top Seed: 1:54.31 – Sarah Sjostrom – Sweden
World Record: 1:52.98 (2009) – Frederica Pellegrini – Italy
JR World Record: 1:56.12 – Shen Duo – China
Olympic Record: 1:53.61 (2012) – Allison Schmitt – USA
2012 Olympic Champion: 1:53.61 – Allison Schmitt – USA
Katie Ledecky of the United States absolutely dominated the heats of the women’s 200m freestyle, clocking in a time of 1:55.01 to establish herself as the clear leader. The defending world champion finished well ahead of Emma McKeon who grabbed the second overall time in 1:55.80.
Ledecky and McKeon were the only two swimmers to break 1:56 this morning. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who’s in the running to win this race in the finals after her stunning world record victory in the 100m butterfly last night, dropped a 1:56.11 to take third overall.
Charlotte Bonnet of France and world record holder Frederica Pellegrini posted similar times to Sjostrom, also establishing themselves as potential medal threats. Bonnet was a 1:56.26 and world record holder Pellegrini was a 1:56.37.
One of the most shocking performances of the heats was a 1:56.91 from Siobahn Haughey of Hong Kong in order to finish ninth overall. Haughey wasn’t even in the circle-seeded heats, neither was Canada’s Katerine Savard who finished 13th overall.
American Missy Franklin squeezed into the semifinals with a 1:57.12 performance. She goes in 12th overall and will need to step things up if she wants to qualify for tomorrow’s final.
TOP 16
- Katie Ledecky – USA – 1:55.01
- Emma McKeon – Australia – 1:55.80
- Sarah Sjostrom – Sweden – 1:56.11
- Charlotte Bonnet – France – 1:56.26
- Frederica Pellegrini – Italy – 1:56.37
- Shen Duo – China – 1:56.52
- Michelle Coleman – Sweden – 1:56.54
- Al Yanhan – China – 1:56.77
- Siobahn Haughey – Hong Kong – 1:56.91
- Bronte Barratt – Australia – 1:56.93
- Veronika Popova – Russia – 1:57.08
- Missy Franklin – USA – 1:57.12
- Katerine Savard – Canada – 1:57.15
- Manuelle Lyrio – Brazil – 1:57.28
- Femke Heemskerk – Netherlands – 1:57.68
- Brittany MacLean – Canada – 1:57.74
MEN’S 200m BUTTERFLY
Start List: click here
Top Seed: 1:52.91 – Laszlo Cseh – Hungary
World Record: 1:51.51 (2009)- Michael Phelps – USA
JR World Record: 1:55.92 – Andrew Seliskar – USA
Olympic Record: 1:52.03 (2008) – Michael Phelps – USA
2012 Olympic Champion: 1:52.96 – Chad le Clos – South Africa
The two Hungarians Tamas Kenderesi and Laszlo Cseh took the top spots in the men’s 200m butterfly this morning, displacing defending Olympic champion Chad le Clos of South Africa and world record holder Michael Phelps of the United States.
Swimming in the same heat as Phelps., Kenderesi took things out hard, finishing strong on the last 50 in order to drop a 1:54.73. He was the only swimmer in the entire field this morning to go under 1:55 – appearing to put forth a full effort.
Phelps cruised to third in his heat, clocking in at 1:55.73 behind both Kenderesi and Grant Irvine of Australia. Irvine was fourth overall in 1:55.64.
Both Cseh and le Clos won their respective heats, sportig times of 1:55.14 and 1:55.57 to take the second a third seeds heading into tonight’s finals. Both swimmers didn’t appear to be putting in a full effort as Cseh cruised the first 150 only to finish strong. Le Clos did what he had to do to get his hands on the wall first, but not much more, glancing at his opponents through the side while approaching the wall.
TOP 16
- Tamas Kenderesi – Hungary – 1:54.73
- Laszlo Cseh – Hungary – 1:55.14
- Chad le Clos – South Africa – 1:55.57
- Grant Irvine – Australia – 1:55.64
- Michael Phelps – USA – 1:55.73
- Masato Sakai – Japan – 1:55.76
- Viktor Bromer – Denmark – 155.77
- Daiya Seto – Japan – 1:55.79
- Leonardo De Deus – Brazil – 1:55.98
- Zheng Wen Quah – Singapore – 1:56.01
- Evgeny Koptelov – Russia – 1:56.13
- Kaio Marcio – Brazil – 1:56.45
- Simon Sjodin – Sweden – 1:56.46
- Louis Croenen – Belgium – 1:56.48
- Jonathan David Gomez Noreiga – Colombia – 1:56.65
- Li Zuhao – China – 1:56.72
WOMEN’S 200m IM
Start List: click here
Top Seed: 2:06.12 – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary
World Record: 2:06.12 (2015) – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary
JR World Record: 2:10.76 – Imai Runa – Japan
Olympic Record: 2:07.57 (2012) – Ye Shiwen – China
2012 Olympic Champion: 2:07.57 – Ye Shiwen – China
Katinka Hosszu dropped a new Olympic record in the final heat of the women’s 200m IM this morning, touching in with a time of 2:07.45 to absolutely blow away the rest of her heat and establish herself as the clear favorite.
Hosszu’s time wasn’t as fast as she’s been this year but is a great indicator that there’s possibility for her to break yet another world record. Hosszu set the current world record at last year’s world championships, but has already proven that she’s in better shape than last year after demolishing the world record in the 400m IM on the first night of competition here in Rio.
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor also put up a very dominant swim. Representing Great Britain, O’Connor swam a 2:08.44 to take the second seed overall behind Hosszu. She touched over a full second ahead of third overall Melanie Margalis of the United States. Margalis and her American teammate Maya DiRado took the third and fourth overall seeds respectively with times of 2:09.62 and 2:10.24.
The defending Olympic champion Ye Shiwen of China managed to grab a spot in the semifinal with a 2:10.56 performance. That ranks her seventh overall heading into the semifinals where she’s a hopeful to advance.
On the first day of competition Shiwen missed out on qualifying for the final of the 400m IM despite being the world record holder and defending Olympic champion.
TOP 16
- Katinka Hosszu – Hungary – 2:07.45
- Siobhan-Marie O’Connor – Britain – 2:08.44
- Melanie Margalis – USA – 2:09.62
- Maya DiRado – USA -2:10.24
- Miho Teramura – Japan -2:10.34
- Alicia Coutts – Australia – 2:10.52
- Ye Shiwen – China – 2:10.56
- Sydney Pickrem – Canada – 2:11.06
- Zsuzsanna Jakabos – Hungary – 2:11.69
- Kim Seoyeong – South Korea – 2:11.75
- Runa Imai – Japan – 2:11.78
- Hannah Miley – Britain – 2:11.84
- Alexandra Wenk – Germany – 2:12.46
- Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson – Canada – 2:12.56
- Mereia Belmonte Garcia – Spain – 2:12.58
- Viktoria Andreeva – Russia – 2:13.01
Didn’t anyone see the infraction on Hosszu’s 200 IM back to breast turn? She was not vertical to her back on her cross over turn, should have been DQ’d
Predictions for finals tonight
W100 Breast
King 1:05.5
A Concoction of Drugs 1:05.7
Ruta M 1:05.9
M100 Back
Murphy 51.9
Plummer 52.2
Toss up between Stravius and Larkin at 52.3
W100 Back
Baker 58.5
Hosszu 58.7
Seebhom 58.8 (hope she proves me wrong)
I also see Ledecky dropping a 1:54 low with Mckeon and Sjostrom behind at 1:55mid-low. No idea on how Missy does, but my gut tells me a 1:56 low to sneak into finals
Gotta believe that the M200 fly is gonna be interesting. I think either LeClos or Cesh drop into the 1:53 mark tonight with the other and Phelps closing around a 1:54… Read more »
Semi finals should be taken out of swimming. It serves no purpose except for extending the meet. Makes the prelims boring as best guys holding back.
Where is Bobo? I miss his insightful comments.
The entire crowd stood up and went nuts for Phelps’s race. They didn’t even do that at most races during finals.
I don’t mean to be inflammatory when I say this, but what, exactly, are Shane Tusup’s qualifications in coaching? I don’t understand how someone can take an already great swimmer trained by Dave Salo and turn her into what she is now. Does he work with other swimmers? What is his training style?
I think what really attributed to Katinka’s success was not Shane’s coaching style but rather the bond they share together. Being married means they know more about each other than any other relationship. They know what works best what doesn’t, what they are feeling at a certain moment, what is happening outside of the pool. You can see something like this between Bowman and Phelps, who worked with each other for over 20 years now, and its certainly proved successful for them. I think having this kind of closeness between an athlete and a coach is incredibly important, especially when you get to a elite level where every little factor counts.
never been near the cool down pool after she has a poor race, eh?
Deep relationship can be huge. They have the best well rounded program together because of it from what I’ve seen. Even helped create the Iron Lady branding.
Wonder if this will cancel out SwimSwam blocking my posts. Who knows… I do have a kind side.
I guess having a paper about being a top coach means less than actual knowledge, hard work and dedication. BTW, Dave Salo told Hosszu after 2012 to retire and open a beauty shop or clothing store.. :S That’s what Katinka got from the big Dave Salo. A big nothing…
Are you insinuating that Salo does not have knowledge or work hard? He coached her to multiple NCAA titles and a world championship, I would not call that nothing. I’m just wondering what exactly Tusup did to help her improve so dramatically, especially post-college. At age 27 she cut a huge swath of time off a record that almost everyone on this website thought was already absurd (in an endurance event). Plus, he transitioned her into backstroke, which she wasn’t really known for before him. I mean, how did they do it?
Salo should retire. He is an embarrassment to US Swimming.
NYTimes said Salo described her as soft in the weight room. Obviously, that’s no longer true. Tusup was a backstroker, so he had some knowledge. What’s anyone’s credentials when they first start coaching?
Does anyone know why there are no videos anywhere of the full races? I’m not talking about NBC live coverage or anything. Plus I know that NBC Sports has some of the racing vids on their Youtube but they aren’t the full races. Come on NBC I’ve gotta relive those WRs from last night man…
Honest question: if we can take Hosszu’s performances at face value, and there’s nothing concrete to suggest that we can’t, is there an argument to be made that she, not Ledecky, is the world’s most dominant female swimmer? Hosszu’s performance in the 4IM was incredible and she’s clearly streets ahead in the 2IM as well. If she also wins the 200 Bk where does that leave us? Are we all being jerks for not recognizing and appreciating true excellence?
The relative downplaying of Hosszu’s achievements is obviously indicative of the “distrust” fans feel for Hosszu. Hosszu’s brought some of this on herself: her sudden emergence after graduating, her action-figure physique, her strangely circumspect reaction on crushing the world in the… Read more »
We are all appreciating her performances. But with all due respect what Ledecky is doing is beyond what Hosszu is doing. She is taking out WRs left, right, and center. She does it from 200/1500 individually while ripping 52 mid 100 splits. Hosszu dominates 2 events and does well in one or two others. If the 200 goes as planned, Ledecky is capable of completely dominating 4 events.
Shadow issues aside, I think they are pretty comparable. 100 back – 400IM is similar range as 200-800/1500 free, IMO. Although, Ledecky is further below non-suited WRs than Hosszu.
Ledecky is great from 100-1500m
And while Hosszu is a medal contender in 100 and 200 back, she does not dominate those events.
it’s a good bar argument, but Hosszu is stronger in 100-200 back than Ledecky in 100 free. “Great” there is debatable.
This is why i love swimming – you really can’t compare them because they have completely different programs. Katie is the best female freestyler ever. (period). Hosszu is a beast, and great, great IM’r, possibly the best ever (pending 2IM results). Neither of them could medal in any of the 50/100 sprint events (Hosszu may prove me wrong tonight in Back, though her form is not best ever..)
Yes! I mean, is the best swimmer the one who masters all four strokes? The one who swims fastest, period, i.e. a freestyler? Wins the most golds? Is the furthest ahead in their specialty? etc. Personally, I would give the nod to Ledecky, for maintaining this dominance for 3-4 years, but I don’t give her extra points for killing it in more events. There isn’t an 800 IM! (if there was, these two would have a mean race). Anyway, if she bags the 200-400-800 triple and Hosszu wins a 3rd event, too, this won’t be settled.
My wife (a non-swimmer) asked how Ledecky compared to Phelps in terms of dominance. I said that while Phelps was way more versatile in that he won a wide-variety of events flys/frees/IM’s and has been winning for longer, he probably wasn’t every as truly dominate because of Lochte – if Ledecky maintains this level for another olympic cycle it’s definitely a very close argument. Thoughts?
In 2008 (really, about 2007-2009, give or take) I think he was just this dominant in the IMs, and still clearly the best in 200 fly, 200 free, 100 fly… In the IMs, he was head and shoulders above the world for a good 6-6 years, starting in 2003 or 2004 (I’m not looking up his 2003 results). If you take Lochte out of the picture, you could call it a 10-year run. But it’s a fair point, if she keeps this up another 4 years, wow.
But you can’t just take Lochte out of it! Those 2 always pushed each other. Even phelps credits Lochte for making him the faster better competitor!
Following the Olympics – propose a swimoff of 400 Meters comprised of 2IM going right into 2FR…
If we’re just talking rankings… Hosszu is top 25 all-time in 6 events: 1st in the 200/400 IM, 5th in the 200 Fly, T-7th in the 200 Back, 9th in the 100 Back, and 12th in the 200 Free. Ledecky is top 25 in four: 1st in the 400/800/1500, 4th in the 200 Free. (Her 100 Free split of 52.6 if we call that a 53.4 would be 23rd). I’d give the advantage to Ledecky there overall, though true that Hosszu is better at the 100-200 back than Ledecky at the 100 Free.
exactly.. and even the level of dominance isn’t exactly the same..
no one historically is even near ledecky in the events that she dominates.. while hosszu didn’t have the 4 IM world record until a couple days ago and broke the 2IM world record in last year’s world championship by .03
To be fair to Hosszu though, she was the victim of a one-off, fluky 58second freestyle split from Ye Shiwen 4 years ago. So many times she was way under WR pace to the 300 and got mowed down by that WR line in the last 100 (which was equal parts hilarious due to how ridiculous it was, and frustrating).
Even without Ye’s record, Hosszu didn’t beat Stephanie Rice’s earlier mark (4:29.45) until this week either.
That’s true. Her approach may have been different though if it was Rice’s WR that she was chasing – she clearly wanted the WR badly, but probably was guilty of overswimming a bit at the beginning of the race in order to try to get ahead of the 58 freestyle split.
Another big reason: she’s not American. But aside from that, I think you nailed the reasons that people are being circumspect. I’m not accusing anyone of anything and it stinks that we all have our guard up, but let’s face it, you can’t control the emotional reaction of doubt when you see such an unusual career path.
Well, what’s the argument for Hosszu? Don’t just say that there is one, make it.
The argument for Ledecky is that she’s undefeated in major competition in the 200-1500 so far. Ledecky’s margins to the 2nd fastest swimmer ever in those events she has a record in (1.1%, 1.5%, and 1.4% in the 400/800/1500) are larger than Hosszu’s (0.02% and 0.76% in the 200/400). Her margin of victory (%-wise) in the 400 Free was also larger than Hosszu’s in the 400 IM, and her margin of victory in the 800 Free (%-wise) will probably be larger than Hosszu’s in the 200 IM.
It’s not that Hosszu isn’t amazing. It’s that objectively she’s not the most dominant.
A counter argument is that comparing the margins to the second faster swimmer ever isn’t the best measure – as many suspect Ye Shiwen’s time in the 400IM, plus the “unbreakable” super suited 200IM that Katinka Hozzu managed to beat. If you compare instead the margins for victory in this olympics – they are nearly identical. It remains to be seen what the margins will look like in the 200 free for Ledecky and the 200IM for Hozzu. Additionally – Ledecky seems a virtual lock for an 800 gold, while a 3rd gold for Hozzu isn’t nearly as certain.
Anyways, just a few additional points to consider. Objectively, I don’t think it’s quite as clear as you are making it… Read more »
What measure would you like? How about most appearances in the top 10 performances of all time for their respective events? Ledecky 1/10 in the 200, 9/10 in the 400, 10/10 in the 800, 6/10 in the 1500. Hosszu 2/10 in the 200 Fly, 5/10 in the 200/400 IMs.
You said “what’s the argument for Hozzu? Don’t just say there is one, make it.” I think I added some valid points.
That being said, I do think Ledecky has the stronger resume. I just agree with the original post that Hozzu seems to get a bit less recognition for her accomplishments than Ledecky, for a variety of less objective reasons.
She is easily the world’s most dominant female swimmer. If she wanted she could go toe to toe with Ledecky putting up these times. They’ve developed trIning methods to dominate events across the board. Katinka is built to be a better IM swimmer obviously and Ledecky freestyle build.
Really we are probably jerks because lets be honest, extreme relationships have extreme ups and downs. Its not easy, but what would anyone do if it was bringing them success. Ya live with it until you accomplish what you need or work to make things more stable and performance will likely suffer a bit. Maybe who knows. Huge props for astonishing the world and inspiring new generations of female swimmers to accomplish… Read more »
Part of it probably has to do with Ledecky’s perfect record internationally in individual events, while Hosszu was 0 for 3 in medals in her individual events in London 4 years ago. But without a doubt, they are the two most ambitious, machine-like swimmers out there.
As an aside: I think it would be so cool if Ledecky one day took a run at the 400IM (if she stops having fun dominating at freestyle haha).
Hosszu crushed it in the 400IM, the test of the best all around swimmer.