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)
Chinese swimmer Shen Duo dropped out of the semi-finals of the women’s 100 free, which cancelled a pending swim-off between Japanese teammates Rikako Ikee and Miki Uchida.
The 16-year old Ikee and 21-year old Uchida tied for 16th place in prelims in matching 54.50s. Duo was just a touch faster than the two in 54.41,
While not publicly confirmed yet, its highly probable that Duo, who was 5th individually in the 200 free, will join China’s 800 free relay in finals. That Chinese relay was 3rd in prelims (a second ahead of the 4th-place Russians), and she should be able to clear at least 3 seconds from the Chinese morning swim as they try to chase down the Australians for silver. Barring a disaster, the Americans are heavy favorites for gold in the 800 free relay and will be chasing the World Record in finals.
Meanwhile, the Japanese swimmers were 8-tenths of a second short of the top 8 time that’s the early marker for who will advance to Thursday’s final. Ikee, the younger of the two competitors, has a best time of 53.69, which is also the Japanese Record. If she equals that record, it will put her on the bubble to make a final.