Swimming has been an ever-present discipline at every modern Games and, along with athletics, is generally considered one of the highlight sports of the games. The swimming at these Games promises to be no exception, with plenty of storied rivalries – both personal and national – on show.
On the Women’s side, the Games seem likely to be dominated by 2 nations – the USA and Australia, who could win 75% of the gold medals between them. Within those national rivalries, there is one personal rivalry that stands out – Ariarne Titmus of Australia – one of the potential breakout stars of the games – up against Katie Ledecky of the USA, who is arguably the greatest female swimmer of all time. The two will clash three times individually – all in freestyle and over three distances – 200m, 400m and 800m. I would expect Titmus to be the favourite over the shortest, Ledecky over the longest and it is anyone’s game for the middle distance! They will also likely meet in the 4x200m freestyle relay, although the Australians are overwhelming favourites in that event.
In other events, we see a renewal of the breaststroke rivalry between Lilly King (USA) and Yulia Efimova (ROC) that developed in Rio. The women’s 100m backstroke promises to be one of the standout events, with the potential for 3, maybe 4, women breaking the current world record if they are on form. Finally we have the ‘veterans’ – Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) and Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden) hoping to retain Golds, although Sjostrom is coming back from serious injury earlier this year.
In the Men’s events, these Games could be known as the Dressel Games. Caeleb Dressel of the USA is favourite in 3 individual events and will obviously be part of very strong US relays. The home nation has strong chances for several gold, with Katsuhiro Matsumoto and Daiya Seto being amongst them. All the male relays promise to be absolute dogfights, with the USA, UK, Australia and ROC all harbouring realistic medal chances in each. Finally, how can we talk about swimming and not mention Adam Peaty, who holds the 15 fastest times in history in the men’s 100m breaststroke. There is no such thing as a ‘sure’ medal in sports but Peaty, barring injury or illness, is likely as close as you can get.
Ian's World Of Sports 