Rio 2016

Rio 2016 venue: Olympic Aquatics Stadium – Olympic Park (Barra Zone)
Competition dates: Aug. 6-13
Medal events: 34
Olympic introduction: 1896 (Athens, Greece)

Preview
With a mix of established veterans, including many of the sport’s most decorated athletes and talented breakout performers, Team USA will aim to shine against the world’s best swimmers at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

As they have for more than a decade, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte again lead the U.S. men’s roster. Since becoming the most decorated Olympian of all-time four years ago in London, Phelps took a break from competition before returning to the pool in 2014. In 2015, he posted the world’s fastest time in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly and the 200 individual medley. Phelps won all three events at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming to become first American male swimmer to qualify for five Olympic Games. Lochte will join Phelps in the 200 individual medley in Rio and will become just the third American male to make four Olympic appearances. Fellow 2012 gold medalist Nathan Adrian, now a three-time Olympian, swept the sprint freestyle events at Trials and returns for another run at the podium in 2016.   

On the women’s side, Katie Ledecky has been dominant since claiming the 800 freestyle Olympic title in London, winning 14 international gold medals – including five at the 2015 FINA World Championships –  and setting 11 world records across the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle events. She won the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle at 2016 Trials. First-time Olympian Maya DiRado joined Ledecky and Phelps as triple-winners at Trials, taking the 200 and 400 individual medley titles, as well as the 200 backstroke. Missy Franklin, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in 2012, will compete in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle in Rio. Also back for another run at Olympic success in 2016 are 2012 gold medalists Allison Schmitt and Dana Vollmer. Vollmer has seen rapid improvement after taking time off for the birth of her first child in 2015.

Joining these veteran performers are 30 first-time Olympians in the pool competition, Team USA’s highest total since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Among this group are Lilly King, who swept the women’s breaststroke events at Trials, and Ryan Murphy, winner of both men’s backstroke races. Newcomers King (100 breaststroke) and Josh Prenot (200 breaststroke) posted the fastest time in the world for 2016 at U.S. Olympic Trials.

On the open water front, Jordan Wilimovsky, Sean Ryan and 2012 10-kilometer silver medalist Haley Anderson qualified for the Rio Games with top-10 finishes at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. Wilimovsky became the first American to win the men’s 10K world title since 2005. He also qualified for the pool competition in the 1500 freestyle to become the first American to qualify for open water and pool events at the same Olympic Games. 

Athletes To Watch
Nathan Adrian 
The 100 freestyle champion in London, Adrian enters the Rio Games as Team USA’s top sprinter. The three-time Olympian won the 50 and 100 freestyle titles at 2016 Trials and will look to add to his career total of three Olympic gold medals in Rio. 

Maya DiRado
A first-time Olympian, DiRado won three events at 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – the 200 and 400 individual medleys and 200 backstroke. The Stanford University graduate has stated that the Rio Games will be her last, as she has a job as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company slated to start this fall. 

Missy Franklin 
Since winning four gold medals in London, Franklin claimed 11 medals at the 2013 and 2015 FINA World Championships, and capped her collegiate career with victories at the 2015 NCAA Championships in three individual events for national champion University of California, Berkeley. She was second in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle at 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Katie Ledecky 
Ledecky burst on the scene at 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials with a victory in the 800 freestyle and a subsequent gold medal in London. Since then, she’s been dominant, winning 14 international gold medals at the 2013 and 2015 FINA World Championships and 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, while setting 11 world records across the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle events. 

Ryan Lochte 
Coming off a fourth straight world title in the 200 individual medley in 2015, Lochte is just the third American male swimmer to qualify for four Olympic Teams, joining Michael Phelps and Jason Lezak. Lochte’s 11 career Olympic medals are tied for second among U.S. men with Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi. 

Michael Phelps 
Phelps etched his name in the record books yet again by becoming the first male swimmer to qualify for five U.S. Olympic Teams at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. He made history in 2008 when he won gold in eight events and added to his legacy in 2012 when he became the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 career medals, including 18 golds. Phelps, who won the 100 and 200 butterfly and 200 individual medley at Trials, can add to that total in Rio. 

Storylines

• In Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, two of Team USA’s all-time greats will be making a run at history in 2016. This duo has combined to win 33 Olympic medals since 2004. As a whole, Team USA has amassed 90 medals in the pool over this stretch. Phelps is on his fifth U.S. Olympic Team; Lochte his fourth. Both men will swim the 200 individual medley in Rio.

• Katie Ledecky enters the 2016 Olympic Games on a roll, having won five gold medals at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, and three events at U.S. Olympic Team Trials. At last year’s world championships, she became the first swimmer to win gold in the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle events at the same FINA World Championships. Ledecky is the first swimmer since Janet Evans to hold the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle world records simultaneously and has never lost a long-course meters international final in her career.

• London gold medalist and former world-record holder Dana Vollmer quickly rounded back into form after giving birth to her first child, a son named Arlen, in March 2015. Just five months later, she finished fourth in the 100 butterfly at the 2015 National Championships and followed that with a victory in December at the 2015 AT&T Winter National Championships in her signature event. She qualified for her third Olympic Team with a runner-up finish in the event at 2016 Trials. Vollmer joins Michael Phelps and David Plummer as parents on this year’s U.S. Olympic Team.

• A California-raised surfer and student at Northwestern University, Jordan Wilimovsky is a breakout star headed into 2016 following a victory in the open water 10-kilometer event at the 2015 FINA World Championships, as well as U.S. national titles in open water and pool competitions. In Kazan, he pulled away late to earn his first world title, becoming the first swimmer to clinch a spot on the U.S. roster for the 2016 Olympic Games. At the pool U.S. Olympic Team Trials, he was runner-up in the 1500 freestyle to become the first American to qualify for open water and pool events at the same Olympic Games.

• Sixteen years after winning gold in the 50 freestyle in Sydney, Anthony Ervin is back on the Team USA roster for a third time in 2016. He was second in the 50 freestyle at Trials to become the oldest American male swimmer to qualify for an individual Olympic event since 1904. Ervin retired from the sport at age 22 before returning to competition in 2011 after a seven-year hiatus. He also qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team.