2016 Rio Olympic Games: Multiple World Records At Risk At Day 2 Finals

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 
• Schedule & Results
• Live Stream (NBC)

The first night of Olympic swimming finals last night did not disappoint, with some very exciting races including two world records from Katinka Hosszu in the 400 IM and the Australian women in the 400 free relay. Tonight could easily see more than two broken, with the women’s 100 fly, men’s 100 breast and the women’s 400 free all with very good chances of seeing the fastest times ever thrown down.

The women’s 100 fly will go off first tonight, with world record holder Sarah Sjostrom looking to win her first Olympic medal after dominating this event for the past three years. Her world of 55.64 is certainly on watch, as she was just two tenths off in the semi-finals.

Sjostrom looks to have a clear path to gold, but the race for the minor medals will be tight. Emma McKeon, Dana Vollmer, Rikako Ikee, Penny Oleksiak and Lu Ying were all within three tenths of each other in the semis, setting up an epic battle for silver and bronze.

The second final will be the men’s 100 breast, where Adam Peaty will look to better his own world record that he set in the prelims here in Rio of 57.55. He backed that up with a 57.62 in the semis, and appears to have the gold medal on lockdown.

Like the women’s 100 fly, the battle for the minor medals will be close, with Cody Miller leading the field after a career best 59.05 in the semis. Both Kevin Cordes and Yasuhiro Koseki have been under 59 seconds this year, and Cameron van der Burgh is the defending champion, so look for those three to be in the thick of things along with Miller for 2nd.

The third individual final will be the women’s 400 free, which might have the best chance of all races to have a world record. Katie Ledecky led the prelims in 3:58.71, just 0.34 off her own world record and over four seconds clear of the 2nd qualifier Jazz Carlin of Great Britain. Ledecky’s world record stands from the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, and she has drastically improved her times in all of her other events since then, so a world record tonight is expected.

We’ll also see four sets of semi-finals tonight in the men’s 200 free, women’s 100 breast, and both the men’s and women’s 100 back. Worlds records aren’t as expected to happen in these events, though it is possible in both 100 backs, specifically the men’s. The record stands at 51.94, and Mitch Larkin, Ryan Murphy and David Plummer have all been 52-low this year.

Emily Seebohm could also pop one off in the women’s 100 back, though she was nearly a second off this morning. Her time of 58.26 set last year is just 0.14 off Gemma Spofforth‘s record from 2009.

The women’s 100 breast will feature top seed Lilly King of the United States, defending Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and last years World Champion Yuliya Efimova of Russia, who has been under heavy scrutiny after her back and forth battle with FINA in her doping case, ultimately getting cleared to compete just yesterday. Efimova will swim alongside Meilutyte in semi 1, while King will be joined by American teammate Katie Meili in semi 2.

The wide open men’s 200 free will also be very exciting to see who advances into the top eight, with Paul Biedermann, Conor Dwyer, Sun Yang and Chad Le Clos leading the way after prelims, all dipping below 1:46. A time of 1:46-low will likely be required to final.

The final event will be the men’s 4×100 free relay, which is bound to be electric. The top four seeds; the Russians, Americans, Australians and the French are all expected to switch out swimmers for the final, and will likely be the four battling for the medals. It is also expected to be the Rio Olympic debut of the greatest Olympian of all-time Michael Phelps, Australian Cameron McEvoy and France’s Florent Manaudou, among others.