Team USA Schedule at the Summer Olympics
The Opening Ceremonies for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro start tonight at 7:30 PM EST. There are over 306 events, meaning there are only 918 medals awarded to 11,239 athletes participating.
While it would be awesome to watch every event, sometimes there are just more important or better things to do than watch the rhythmic gymnastics, women's archery, or all of the men's and women's wrestling and weightlifting. But if you're interested in watching the most intriguing events during the Olympics, below is the schedule of events in which Team USA stands the best chance of seeing the podium....
Basketball: Before discussing the men's team that you're familiar with, it's the women's team that boasts the longer Olympics winning streak (41) and own all but one gold medal since the boycotted 1980 Olympic games. They're margin of victory in London 2012 was 2 points higher than the Men's team (34). They're heavily favored to take gold this Summer, and their first game is on Day 2. As for the men, their Olympic gold defense will begin on Day 1. In the Men's five exhibition matches leading up the Olympics, the USA embarrassed everybody they played averaging a 50 point margin of victory. The only two teams that stand a chance at stopping the United States are France and Spain.
Games 1
USA Men vs. China on Saturday August 6th @ 6 PM
USA Women vs. Senegal on Sunday August 7th @ 11 AM
Games 2
USA Women vs. Spain on Monday August 8th @ 11 AM
USA Men vs. Venezuela on Monday August 8th @ 6 PM
Games 3
USA Women vs. Serbia on Wednesday August 10th @ 2:30 PM
USA Men vs. Australia on Wednesday August 10th @ 6 PM
Games 4
USA Women vs. Canada on Friday August 12 @ 2:30 PM
USA Men vs. Serbia on Friday August 12 @ 6 PM
Games 5
USA Women vs. China on Sunday August 14 @ 11:15 AM
USA Men vs. France on Sunday August 14 @ 1:15 PM
Women's Quarterfinals - Tuesday August 16 from 10 AM-9:15 PM
Men's Quarterfinals - Wednesday August 17 from 10 AM-9:15 PM
Women's Semifinals - Thursday August 18 at 2 PM & 6 PM
Men's Semifinals - Friday August 19 at 2 PM & 6 PM
Women's Finals - Saturday August 20th at 2:30 PM
Men's Finals - Sunday August 21st at 2:45 PM
Golf:
Olympic Golf is back for the first time since 1912, whether it becomes as significant as a major tournament took a serious hit when the top 5 ranked golfers in the world bailed on the tournament. Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler are golfing for Team USA. Bubba Watson is the favorite to win gold, but Henrik Stenson of Sweden is taking the momentum of his major win and fantastic season to challenge the favored Watson. Other tournament participants that can ruin the gold medal chances for Team USA are Spain's Sergio Garcia, Great Britain's Justin Rose & Danny Willett and Germany's Martin Kaymer. The tournament is formatted like a regular four round tournament Thursday, August 11th to Sunday, August 14th at "Campo Olimpico de Golfe" in Rio. The course will play similar to a links course without trees, but the rough is similar to Pinehurst No. 2 with the sand and shrub mixture lining the fairways. In an interview with PGA.com, course designer Gil Hanse said the 79 bunkers are "intended to be the most dramatic feature on the course," and that the course mostly resembles an Australian sand belt course.
Soccer:
The US women's soccer team features most of the same athletes we're accustomed to seeing on the world stage - Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, and Hope Solo. The women's team has four gold medals in the last five olympics, only finishing as low as silver. Women's tournament started on Tuesday when the girls beat New Zealand 2-0 in their first match. The rest of their group play schedule are as follows - USA vs. France on Saturday at 4 PM and Tuesday August 9th at 6 PM against Colombia. Then the Quarterfinals start on Friday, August 12th from 12-9 PM followed by the Semifinals on Tuesday August 16th at 12 and 3 PM. Then the soccer tournament wraps up the Finals match on Friday August 19th at 4:30 PM.
Swimming:
As is the case with most Summer Games, the pool showdowns between the US and Australia will be the story to watch. Also, Michael Phelps returns for his 5th Olympics and hopes to put his medal count record completely out of reach, competing in the 100m & 200m Butterfly and 200m individual medley. Because there are 34 events in both the Men's and Women's swimming, going into depth on every event would run three pages long - so I'm going to list the schedule of final medal heats with the medal predictions from SportsIllustrated.
Day 1: Saturday August 6th
9:03 PM - Men's 400M Individual Medley - Chase Kalisz predicted to win Bronze
9:30 PM - Men's 400M Freestyle
9:49 PM - Women's 400M Individual Medley - Maya DiRado predicted to Silver
10:24 PM - Women's 4x100M Freestyle Relay - Team USA predicted to win Silver
Day 2: Sunday August 7th
9:03 PM - Women's 100M Butterfly
9:53 PM - Men's 100M Breaststroke - Kevin Cordes predicted to win Silver
10:01 PM - Women's 400M Freestyle - Katie Ledecky predicted Gold, Leah Smith predicted Silver
10:54 PM - Men's 4x100M Freestyle Relay - Team USA predicted Bronze (USA has never failed to medal)
Day 3: Monday August 8th
9:21 PM - Men's 200M Freestyle
9:30 PM - Women's 100M Backstroke
9:38 PM - Men's 100M Backstroke - David Plummer predicted Silver, Ryan Murphy predicted Bronze
9:54 PM - Women's 100M Breaststroke - Lilly King predicted to win Gold
Day 4: Tuesday August 9th
9:19 PM - Women's 200M Freestyle - Katie Ledecky is predicted to win Gold
9:28 PM - Men's 200M Butterfly - Michael Phelps predicted to win Silver
10:29 PM - Women's 200M Individual Medley - Maya DiRado predicted to win Bronze
10:38 PM - Men's 4x200M Freestyle Relay - Team USA predicted Gold (USA has never failed to medal)
Day 5: Wednesday August 10th
9:03 PM - Men's 200M Breaststroke - Josh Prenot predicted Gold, Kevin Cordes Bronze
9:54 PM - Women's 200M Butterfly
10:03 PM - Men's 100M Freestyle - Nathan Adrian predicted to win Bronze
10:55 PM - Women's 4x200M Freestyle Relay - Team USA predicted to win gold
Day 6: Thursday August 11th
9:17 PM - Women's 200M Breaststroke
9:26 PM - Men's 200M Backstroke - Ryan Murphy predicted to win Silver
10:01 PM - Men's 200M Individual Medley - Michael Phelps predicted Silver, Ryan Lochte Bronze
10:18 PM - Women's 100M Freestyle
Day 7: Friday August 12th
9:03 PM - Women's 200M Breaststroke
9:12 PM - Men's 100M Butterfly - Michael Phelps is predicted to win Gold
9:20 PM - Women's 800M Freestyle - Katie Ledecky predicted Gold and Leah Smith Bronze
9:44 PM - Men's 50M Freestyle - Nathan Adrian predicted to win Bronze
Day 8: Saturday August 13th
9:03 PM - Women's 50M Freestyle
9:11 PM - Men's 1500M Freestyle - Connor Jaeger predicted to win Bronze
9:49 PM - Women's 4x100M Medley Relay - USA predicted to win Bronze (USA medaled since 1912)
10:04 PM - Men's 4x100M Medley Relay - USA predicted to win Gold (13 golds in 13 games in this event)
Day 10: Monday August 15th
8:00 AM - Women's 10km Open Water Marathon
Day 11: Tuesday August 16th
8:00 AM - Men's 10 km Open Water Marathon - Jordan Wilimovsky is predicted to win Silver
Track & Field:
There's too many track and field events to dig into the storylines of every event, so I'll list the Track and Field events similar to how I did it for Swimming.
Day 7: Friday August 12th
10:10 AM - Women's 10,000M
9 PM - Women's Shot Put
Day 8: Saturday August 13th
9:50 AM - Men's Discuss Throw
7:50 PM - Men's Long Jump - Jarrion Lawson expected to win Bronze
8:25 PM - Men's 10,000M
9:35 PM - Women's 100M - Torie Bowie & English Gardner expected to win Silver and Bronze
9:53 PM - Women's Heptathlon
Day 9: Sunday August 14th
8:30 AM - Women's Marathon
7:55 PM - Women's Triple Jump
9:00 PM - Men's 400M - LaShawn Merrit predicted to win gold
9:25 PM - Men's 100M - Justin Gatlin & Trayvon Bromell expected to finish behind Usain Bolt
Day 10: Monday August 15th
9:40 AM - Women's Hammer Throw
7:35 PM - Men's Pole Vault - Sam Kendricks predicted to win Bronze
9:25 PM - Men's 800M
9:45 PM - Women's 400M - Allyson Felix predicted to win Gold
Day 11: Tuesday August 16th
8:50 AM - Men's Triple Jump - Christian Taylor & Will Claye predicted to win Gold and Silver
10:20 AM - Women's Discuss Throw
7:30 PM - Men's High Jump
9:30 PM - Women's 1500M
9:45 PM - Men's 110M Hurdles - Devon Allen predicted to win Bronze
Day 12: Wednesday August 17th
8:15 PM - Women's Long Jump - Brittney Reese predicted to win Gold
9:30 PM - Women's 200M - Tori Bowie predicted to win Silver
9:55 PM - Women's 100M Hurdles - Briana Rollins & Kristi Castlin predicted to win Gold and Silver, world no.1 and WR holder Kendra Harrison failed to qualify for Olympics
Day 13: Thursday August 18th
11:00 AM - Men's 400M Hurdles - Kerron Clement & Michael Tinsley predicted to win Gold and Silver
7:30 PM - Men's Shot Put - Joe Kovacs & Ryan Crouser predicted to win Gold and Silver
8:10 PM - Women's Javelin
8:45 PM - Men's Decathlon - Ashton Eaton predicted to repeat Gold medals
9:15 PM - Women's 400M Hurdles - Delilah Muhammad & Ashley Spencer predicted to win Gold & Bronze
9:30 PM - Men's 200M - LaShawn Merrit & Ameer Webb expected to finish behind Usain Bolt
Day 14: Friday August 19th
7:30 PM - Women's Pole Vault - Jenn Suhr predicted to win Silver
8:05 PM - Men's Hammer Throw
8:40 PM - Women's 5000M
9:15 PM - Women's 4x100M - Team USA predicted to win Gold over Jamaica
9:35 PM - Men's 4x100M - Team USA predicted to finish Silver behind Jamaica
Day 15: Saturday August 20th
7:30 PM - Women's High Jump - Chaunte Lowe predicted to win Gold
7:55 PM - Men's Javelin Throw
8:00 PM - Men's 1500M
8:15 PM - Women's 800M
8:30 PM - Men's 5000M
9:00 PM - Women's 4x400M - USA predicted to win Gold
9:35 PM - Men's 4x400M - USA predicted to win Gold
Day 16: Sunday August 21st
8:30 AM - Men's Marathon
Women's Gymnastics:
After putting on a gymnastics clinic back in 2012 at the Summer Games in London, Team USA will feature some new faces in 2016, but get used to hearing the name Simone Biles - she is one of the most promising Olympic athletes, and she is predicted to take home a number of medals. Here's the Women's gymnastics schedule below.
Day 4: Tuesday August 9th
3:00 PM - Women's Team All Around - USA Expected to repeat Gold medals
Day 6: Thursday August 11th
3:00 PM - Women's Individual All Around - Simone Biles & Laurie Hernandez predicted Gold and Bronze
1:47 PM - Women's Vault - Simone Biles expected to win Gold
3:21 PM - Women's Uneven Bars - Madison Kocian predicted to win Silver
Day 7: Friday August 12th
2:46 PM - Women's Balance Beam - Simone Biles & Aly Raisman expected to win Gold and Silver
Day 11: Tuesday August 16th
1:47 PM - Women's Floor Exercise
Tennis:
While the men's side still lacks an American tennis star, the Women's side features still features the Williams sisters and Serena is heavily favored to take Olympic gold once again and add to her seemingly bottomless trophy case. The tennis schedule is posted below.
Day 7: Friday August 12th
4:20 PM - Men's Doubles Gold Medal Match - Bob & Mike Bryan predicted to win Gold
Day 8: Saturday August 13th
4:20 PM - Women's Singles Gold Medal Match - Serena Williams predicted to win Gold
Day 9: Sunday August 14th
11:00 AM - Men's Singles Gold Medal Match
1:40 PM - Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match - Serena & Venus Williams predicted to win Gold
4:20 PM - Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Match