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
- Rio Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
It was a week of firsts in Rio for a few Asian countries with athletes swimming in the Rio Olympic Games. Among them were Khazakstan and Singapore, which saw their first ever swimming Olympic gold medals.
Khazakstan’s Dmitriy Balandin made his country proud in the men’s 200 breast final, where he came from behind to win the race in 2:07.46. Before Balandin, the closest a Kazakhstani swimmer came to winning a medal was in 2004, when Vladislav Polyakov came in 5th place in both breaststroke events.
Singapore’s Joseph Schooling also brought home their first ever Olympic swimming medal, which was also the first gold medal of any sport for his country. Schooling topped butterfly standouts Michael Phelps, Laszlo Cseh, and Chad Le Clos in the men’s 100 fly, winning the race in 50.39.
In the men’s IM races, Japan and China also saw firsts. Kosuke Hagino, the 2016 Olympic champion in the 400 IM on day 1, became Japan’s first medalist ever in that race, and then went on to take silver behind Michael Phelps in the men’s 200 IM. Also in the 200 IM was China’s Wang Shun, who took the bronze to give China their first Olympic medal in that event.
On the final day of competition, there were no new medals or records for the swimmers from Asia. China wound up with a DQ in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, marking their 2nd relay DQ of the meet after they were DQ’ed in the 4×100 free relay.
Asian Swimming Medal Table Through Rio Day 8:
| COUNTRY | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
| JPN | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| CHN | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| KAZ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| SIN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |