If you’ve watched or read the news lately you already know that the Summer Olympic Games are finally amongst us, and athletes and fans around the world are eagerly waiting in anticipation. The 2016 Rio Olympics opening ceremony starts off the games on August 5 and the closing ceremony will mark the end on August 21. Watch all of the action by checking in online or on TV.
There are 42 different sport disciplines at this year’s Olympic Games. The first Athens Olympics in 1896, only hosted nine sports: athletics (track and field), cycling, fencing, gymnastics and, of course, swimming. As sports evolve, some have been added and eliminated from the program, but the original nine sports remained in every Summer Olympic Games.
Swimming is in the three most popular Olympic sport. The swimming pool events are from August 6 to 13 and should be full of surprises, record-breaking moments and excitement. Team USA is looking very promising for both the men and women.
The U.S. men have swimmers expected to win a medal in 11 out of 13 events; and in those two events without a swimmer seeded in the top three, the Americans are only hundredths of seconds behind the third fastest time.
On the women’s side, based on fastest times swum in the Olympic qualification period, the American women will have medalists in nine of 13 events and Australia has medalists in eight of 13 events.
Leading the charge for Team USA are team captains Michael Phelps, Anthony Ervin and Nathan Adrian for the men and Allison Schmitt, Elizabeth Beisel and Cammile Adams for the women’s team. Phelps is the most seasoned veteran making his fifth Olympic appearance this year! Ervin, Adrian, Schmitt and Beisel are appearing for their third Olympics, while this is Adams’ second Olympic Games. Both the men and women’s teams have many newcomers so it’ll be exciting to watch how they handle the pressure. For event-by-event swimming results and recaps, bookmark this page by SwimSwam.
Other popular events to watch are track and field and gymnastics. In track and field, keep an eye out for Usain Bolt in his final Olympics he will try to make history by winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m. In gymnastics, Simone Biles is already the most decorated female gymnast in history — let’s see what she can do in the Olympics.
After a 112-year hiatus, the sport of golf returns to the Olympics.
In triathlon, Gwen Jorgensen is expected to win since she has been dominating triathlon for years. In table tennis, the youngest athlete at the games (15 years old) will compete and in dressage (horse riding), the oldest athlete (70 years old) will compete. Old, young, veterans, first-timers, injured, recovered, athletes from all over the world will come to compete in Brazil.
