USA Swimming Team for Rio Olympics 2016: 400M Individual Medley, 100M Butterfly and Complete List of Events for Aug. 6
All of Team USA's "Big Four" in swimming events will miss the Rio Olympics opener on August 6 and will instead plot their schedules on the succeeding days.
Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin will be out of the picture for Saturday's Men's 400m Individual Medley, Women's 100m Butterfly, Men's 400m Freestyle, Women's 400m IM, Men's 100m Breast Stroke, and Women's 4 x 100m Free Relay.
The USA gold contenders will instead proceed to their respective schedules on the succeeding days due to various reasons, including participation to other swimming events. Lochte is supposed to defend his 400-meter Individual Medley title but failed to qualify after suffering a groin injury during his preliminary swim.
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Ledecky will swim the 200, 400 and 800, all in freestyles and the only available FS on Saturday is for Men's 400. Michael Phelps' soonest appearance will be on August 8 for the 200m Butterfly. Lastly, Missy Franklin is scheduled for the 200m freestyle on August 9.
Team USA will rely on Kelsi Worrell on the opening day for the 100-meter Butterfly, after qualifying during the trials in Omaha, Nebraska last month. Worrell qualified although slower than her preliminary heat with 57.12 seconds in the women's fly. Another contender is Dana Vollmer who holds the record for the 2012 Olympics will swim with her compatriots for the 100m Butterfly, finishing barely a second faster than Worrell, at 56.90 seconds.
For the Men's 400m Freestyle, Conor Dwyer will carry the USA's flag at the opener. Dwyer won gold in 2012 London Olympics for the 800m free relay and is eyeing for another shot at 400m Free style as well.
At the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, Dwyer swam the second leg and recorded a time of 1:47.31 and earned gold medal in the heats of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, together with teammates David Walters, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay.
Meanwhile, a good match up to look for in the Rio Games is another swimmer from the Team USA Lilly King against Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte. King is currently holding the record for 100m Breast Stroke by hairline half a second with 1.05 while Meilutyte's time pegged at 1.06 minutes.
Here is the complete schedule for swimming events on August 6, Saturday;
Men's 400m IM
Women's 100m Fly
Men's 400m Free
Women's 400m IM
Men's 100m Breast
Women's 4 x 100m Free Relay
