The 2016 Summer Olympic games kick off in Rio de Janeiro in August, and it's bound to be the main topic of conversation from now until the end of the summer. And a lot of that talk will be about swimming, since the United States won 31 medals in the sport in 2012 — and 11 of them were gold, according to NBC Olympics. So when is swimming during the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics? NBC Olympics says on their schedule that the swimming events span from Aug. 6 until Aug. 13 with one to two live streams available each day, and the medals will be awarded during each of those days — so you won't want to miss a moment.
NBC Olympics recently reported that Team USA has 30 rookies on its swimming roster, but there are definitely some more experienced swimmers on the team, especially Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Phelps is famous for currently being the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time — he has won a total of 22 medals over the course of his career, according to NBC. USA swimmers recently completed the Olympic Swimming trials in Omaha, Nebraska, and the roster is set for them to take on Rio.
Check out below for the names should you watch for in the pool.
Michael Phelps
I know, what hasn't been said about Phelps at this point? He's competing in his fifth Olympic games — and likely his last, reported Sports Illustrated. (Although that's been reported for each Olympics, so who knows?) He has also become a new father to a son with fiancé Nicole Johnson, according to E! Online.
As for the pool, his participation in Rio will make him the only U.S. male swimmer to compete in five Olympic games, according to NBC, and he will compete in the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley. "Sitting there before I went out, I was like, ‘See a lot of new faces on the team,’ and ‘I don't even know half of them,’" Phelps told NBC Olympics. "I think it's interesting and also exciting just to have new faces of people who are really pumped to come up into the sport."
Ryan Lochte
In 2012, he won the gold medal in the 400m individual medley, but did not qualify to swim that event in Rio, reported NBC. He'll be swimming the 4x200m freestyle relay and the 200 meter individual medley, where he'll face off against Phelps, who beat him for first place in the event at the Olympic trials, according to the New York Times.
"I don’t know of another person in this world who brings out the best in me like he does,” Phelps told the New York Times about Lochte. “Neither one of us likes to lose."
Katie Ledecky
According to Sports Illustrated, Ledecky won gold in the 800-meter freestyle in 2012 at just 15 years old and she's even more dominant four years later at 19. She is the 2015 World Champion swimmer in the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and non-Olympic 1500-meter freestyle, reported NBC Olympics, and she has set many world records. She will likely enroll at Stanford University after the games — she deferred admission last year to train for Rio, according to the Washington Post.
At the Olympics, she'll compete in a relay, as well as the 400-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle, and the 200-meter freestyle, according to Sports Illustrated.
Caleb Dressel
The University of Florida sprinting swimmer qualified to compete in the Olympic 100-meter freestyle by .03 seconds and 50-meter free, according to the Florida Times Union. The 19-year-old Dressel is making his Olympic debut.
Missy Franklin
At the London 2012 games, Franklin won four gold medals and a bronze at age 17, according to USA Today, but now at 21, she qualified for three events in Rio, including the chance to defend her gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke. “I wasn’t trying to be better than I was in 2012," she told USA Today. "I’m trying to be the best that I am right now, here, Missy Franklin in 2016. I feel like I was able to do that.”
Dana Vollmer
She won a gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly in 2012, took a break to have a baby in 2015, and she has qualified to defend her gold in the butterfly 15 months after giving birth, according to NBC Olympics. But Vollmer told USA Today getting back into the pool after her pregnancy wasn't easy. "To come back, it was humbling. I could hardly make it through warm-up, and to kind of have — each practice was getting better, each practice I was learning different things," she said.
It sounds like there's going to be a lot of awesome competition — and medal possibilities — for these swimmers in Rio. Be sure you don't miss it.
