A whopping 950 competitors will head to the pools in Brazil to compete for 34 gold medals. Swimming always brings out a lot of cameras and is one of the best programs in the Summer Olympics.
Get yourself ready for betting on the Summer Olympics today! We'll have all of the great Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu.
THE FORMAT
There are 17 mediums for the men and the women. Both the men and women compete in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, buttery, individual medley, freestyle relay, medley relay and a marathon. The only difference between the two genders is that women run the 800-meter freestyle for their longest race, while the men are asked to swim 1500 meters.
Most of the mediums in the pool feature heats and finals. In some events, there are semifinal runs as well. In the longer races, there are generally only heats and finals. In the really long races, there are just finals to be run.
Each nation is allowed to send two swimmers into the individual events and one team per team event. No country is allowed to have more than 26 males or 26 females in totality on their teams.
HISTORY OF SWIMMING IN THE SUMMER OLYMPICS
The Americans have dominated the Summer Olympics, and the pool is where they've picked up a lot of their hardware. In totality, the United States has 230 gold medals, 164 silver medals and 126 bronze medals. The only other nation that has more than 100 total medals in swimming is Australia which has 178. The Aussies also have the second most gold medals with 57.
To show just how dominant these two nations have been, third all-time in medals in swimming is East Germany with 92, and Hungary is next with 66. The Americans and Aussies each have more of all three medals than any other nation has in total medals.
SWIMMERS TO WATCH
Katie Ledecky has won the World Swimmer of the Year honors in each of the last three years. She's one of the three Americans who have won the award since 2010. The last time anyone else won the award was when Federica Pellegrini took it for Italy in 2009. The top female swimmers in Europe of late have been Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom and Katinka Hosszu from Hungary. The Pacific's top swimmers have been Emily Seebohm and Cate Campbell, both of which are from Australia, while each of the last five African Swimmers of the Year have been Kirsty Coventry and Karin Prinsloo.
Coventry has been one of the top female swimmers for years, as she has captured the African Swimmer of the Year award eight times from 2004 through 2015.
On the men's side, the Americans have dominated for years thanks to Michael Phelps, who has 18 gold medals in his career. He's got 22 medals in his career, and he's got one last chance to add to that here in Rio in 2016.
Over the course of the last few years though, different men have won World Swimmer of the Year honors. Adam Peaty won the award in 2015, and he becomes the UK's biggest threat to claim gold in swimming in Rio. Japan's Kosuke Hagino and China's Sun Yang have also won the award in 2014 and 2013 respectively.
Keep an eye on Chad le Clos as well. He's won Africa's Swimmer of the Year award on the men's side for four consecutive years.
AND THE GOLD MEDALS GO TO…
Of the 102 medals which were handed out in the pool in 2012 in London, the Americans claimed 31 of them, including 16 gold medals.
There's a really good chance that number goes down this year though, as we can't imagine the men's teams being as strong as they've been with Ryan Lochte and Phelps on them.
Still, there's no doubt that the U.S. will claim the majority of the medals, though China, Australia, Japan, and even South Africa are nations to watch.
Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil run from Saturday, August 6, 2016 through Sunday, August 21, 2016. All of the events can be seen on the NBC family of networks.
