Things get going at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium Saturday afternoon, with the heats in six different competitions being held during the afternoon session. Action begins at 12:00 p.m., with the preliminary heats airing on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app starting with the men’s 400 meter individual medley.
WATCH: Swimming Day 1 Preliminaries on NBCOlympics.com
The men’s 400 meter individual medley has been won by an American in every Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. Looking to keep that streak alive are Jay Litherland and Chase Kalisz, who will bot compete in heat four with Litherland in lane three and Kalisz in lane five. In between them in lane four will be Japan’s Daiya Seto, whose qualifying time of 4:08.50 being the fastest in the field. In fact the Japanese have the two fastest qualifiers in the event, with Kosuke Hagino (4:08.54) swimming in heat three.
Also being held is the women’s 400 meter individual medley with Maya DiRado and Elizabeth Beisel representing the United States, with DiRado swimming in heat four and Beisel in heat five. Also competing in the women’s 400 meter individual medley is Hungary’s Katinkia Hosszu, whose qualifying time of 4:29.89 is the fastest of any competitor in the field. Hosszu will be in heat five, swimming out of lane four with Beisel in lane two.
In the women’s 100 meter butterfly the United States’ Kelsi Worrell and Dana Vollmer are among the fastest qualifiers, with Worrell being the fastest at 56.48 seconds, and they’ll be swimming in heats four and three respectively. The men’s 400 meter freestyle has seven heats to run Saturday afternoon, with Americans Connor Jaeger (heat six, lane five) and Conor Dwyer (heat seven, lane two) among the competitors. Jaeger’s expected to contend for a medal in this event, with Australia’s Mack Horton (the fastest Olympic qualifier) and China’s Sun Yang also in the mix.
The men’s 100 meter breaststroke will be the final individual heat of the afternoon, with Americans Kevin Cordes and Cody Miller both swimming in heat four. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty, the lone competitor to post a qualifying time below the 58-second mark, will be swimming in heat six. Closing out the afternoon session at the pool will be the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay, with Australia entering as the favorites to win gold. Their Olympic qualifying time of 3:31.48 is more than three seconds better than the second-best time, which was posted by the United States (3:34.61). Both teams will swim in heat two, with the Aussies in lane four and the Americans in lane five.
Swimming Day 1 Preliminaries – WATCH LIVE
12:02 p.m.: Men’s 400 meter individual medley heats
12:28 p.m.: Women’s 100 meter butterfly heats
12:48 p.m.: Men’s 400 meter freestyle heats
1:32 p.m.: Women’s 400 meter individual medley heats
2:04 p.m.: Men’s 100 meter breaststroke heats
2:24 p.m.: Women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay heats
