Olympics - Swimming

[RussellEbertHandball]

After the Australian swimming trials I thought the women's team had a chance to win 10 events but knew we had to wait until the European trials and the USA trials after that I reckon;

In the women
50 & 100m Free = Trickett
100 BFly = Trickett maybe Schipper silver
200 BFly =Schipper
100 & 200m Breastroke = Jones
200 IM, Rice from Katie Hoff of USA, but this could be reversed
4 x 100m Free Aus just over USA and Netherlands,
4 X 100m Medley, if Seebhom is within about 0.5 sec of Coughlin in the backstroke we will win provided Schipper is in form as Lenton races the 100 Free leg, we will beat the USA
4 x 200m USA and Germany

800m and 400IM Katie Hoff
400m Hoff or Pellegrini of Italy
200m wide open, Hoff and Schmidtt of USA, Pellegrini, Bennett of Aus, Coventry
100m Back Coughlin USA and then Hoelzer USA, Zueva of Russia, Coventry, Manadou
200m Back Hoelzer from Beisel USA, Coventry of Zimbabwe, Manadou France,

In the Men
100 & 200m backstroke = Peirsol for Gold and yanks Grevers and Lochte to push him
100 & 200m butterfly = Phelps,
200 & 400 IM = Phelps to win both Medleys,
3 relays = yanks to win all easily. Australia to minor medal in 4 x200m and maybe medley relay
The 2 breaststroke finals the 100m will be between Hansen of USA and Kitajima of Japan and Kitajima will win the 200m.

The real battle is in the freestyle events
400 & 1500, Hackett will start favourite but the yanks Jersen and Vanderkaay will push him along with the Euro medal winners from 2007 world champs.
200, Phelps unless Hoogie pulls something remarkable.
50 & 100m are wide open. Sullivan and Bernard are in the hunt along with the yanks Lezak 100m and Weber Gale in both. Hoogie is the big unknown.

Phelps swam a 47.92 in the heats of the 100m so he could get a qualifying time and race in the relay. Didn't swim in the semis. That made him the 5th or 6th fastest ever. That was the winning time by Weber Gale in the final. Weber Gale went 47.78 in the heats as well Lezak went 47.58 in the semis but he was 2nd in the final.

The USA trial results by event from last week are at
http://www.omegatiming.com/swimming/racearchives/2008/Omaha_b_2008/index.htm

You can find the rankings by time until half way thru the USA trials at this page. Make sure you set it at 50m long course
http://www.fina.org/swimming/world_rankings/index.php

Last Olympics swimming medals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics

Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 
1  United States (USA) 12 9 7 28 
2  Australia (AUS) 7 5 3 15 
3  Japan (JPN) 3 1 4 8 
4  Netherlands (NED) 2 3 2 7 
5  Ukraine (UKR) 2 0 1 3 
6  France (FRA) 1 2 3 6 
7  Poland (POL) 1 2 0 3 
8  South Africa (RSA) 1 1 1 3 
 Zimbabwe (ZIM) 1 1 1 3 
10  China (CHN) 1 1 0 2 
11  Romania (ROU) 1 0 1 2 
12  Austria (AUT) 0 2 0 2 
13  Germany (GER) 0 1 4 5 
14  Hungary (HUN) 0 1 1 2 
 Italy (ITA) 0 1 1 2 
16  Croatia (CRO) 0 1 0 1 
 Russia (RUS) 0 1 0 1 
18  Great Britain (GBR) 0 0 2 2 
19  Argentina (ARG) 0 0 1 1 
 Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) 0 0 1 1

At the 2004 Olympics the Yank men won 9 golds and the women won 3 golds. Australia was 3 men's + 4 women's. This Olympics I reckon the yank men's team will do better, but the Aussie women should dominate if they swim to their times at our trials or better them.

Michael Phelps will go close to beating Mark Spitz's 7 gold medals in the 1972 games. The 100m Butterfly will be close and he will be favourite and he is raging favourite in the 200m Free, 200m Fly, 200m IM and 400m IM and only a stuff up in the relays are about the only way he will be stopped as the yanks are red hot favourites in all 3 relays.

Kattie Hoff of the USA has been ignored by the Australian media but she could win 6 golds. She is favourite or second favourite in 200m Free, 400m Free, 800m Free, 200m IM, 400m IM and the yanks will win the 4 x 200m Free relay.

Libby Trickett is a big chance to win 5 golds. 50m Free, 100m Free, 100m Fly and the two relays 4 x 100m Free and 4 x 100m Medley.