2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

After an exhilarating second night in the pool that included an incredible leg from Michael Phelps that helped the Americans to victory in the 400 free relay, the greatest of all-time will make his individual debut in Rio this morning in the prelims of the men’s 200 fly.

Phelps will swim in heat 3 of 4, with arch rivals Chad Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh swimming in heats 2 and 4 respectively. Those three are expected to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field when the medals are on the line tomorrow night, but they’ll have to wait until tonight for two of them to go head-to-head.

The women’s 200 free will actually be the first event this morning, with world record setters last night Katie Ledecky and Sarah Sjostrom headlining the field. Ledecky will swim in heat 5 and Sjostrom in heat 6.

Also of note are the top two seeds in heat 4, Federica Pellegrini and Missy Franklin, who both have impressive international resumes in this event. Pellegrini was the 2008 Olympic champion and is also a two-time World Champion, while Franklin was the 2013 World Champion and also finished 4th in London four years ago.

The third and final event of the morning session will be the women’s 200 IM, where we’ll see Hungarian Katinka Hosszu back again after a dominant showing on the opening night in the 400 IM, setting a world record by over two seconds. She’ll swim in the final heat, heat 5.

Like the 400, Hosszu appears to be in a class of her own in this event, but there are many others who will be in the fight for medals. Siobhan-Marie O’Connor of Great Britain won bronze last summer at the World Championships and comes in as the second seed, swimming out of lane four in heat 4. She’ll be joined by 400 IM bronze medalist from the first night Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain in lane 2.

American Maya Dirado will have the middle of the pool in the first circle seeded heat, joined by 2012 Olympic silver medalist Alicia Coutts. 2012 gold medalist Ye Shiwen will also swim in this heat, but isn’t expected to make much of an impact after a disastrous 400 IM.