Swimming Blogs - Jeff Grace

Well another day another set of predictions.

I have just watched half an hour of the opening ceremonies, I am just not an opening ceremony type of guy, plus it was another beautiful day in Whistler. What I did catch though was the athletes entering the stadium. Now I know in close races DeSantis has been going with the name that would be funniest to hear Rowdy try to pronounce, but after listening to commentators try to pronounce the names of the flag bearers from Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu I can’t take much more and hope that all medalists have the last name of Smith and Jones.

I want to thank all of those who are posting reactions to our picks, it is great and I hope that we see even more as the games get underway.

Olympic Games – Day 4 - Swimming

Women’s 200 Free

Gold – Katie Hoff

Silver – Sara Isakovic

Bronze – Federica Pellegrini

The medalists in the women’s middle distance freestyle events are some of the hardest to pick, I feel like pulling out a loonie (that is our beautiful Canadian one dollar coin) and flipping it to make my choices, but I refrained from doing that and used my Canadian logic.

Hoff will come out on top again in this event. She has developed into the best woman freestyler in the world, in my opinion. This race should be interesting, typically both Hoff and Pellegrini go out fast and Isakovic is more of a back half swimmer in the 200 event. I think that is how it will play out in Beijing Isakovic will have the finishing speed to catch Pellegrini, but not Hoff.

Men’s 200 Fly

Gold – Michael Phelps

Silver –Peng Wu

Bronze – Gil Stovall

The gold in this event needs no explanation he is the best and no one else is even in the picture. Please place one more egg in that basket. It will be a tight race for the silver and bronze. My bet for the silver is Wu from China. He has proven that he can compete on the international stage coming second in this event at the 2007 World Championships, he has an amazing last 50 – which in the 200 fly I believe may be possibly the biggest asset in winning a medal - and he will have the home country advantage. In for the bronze will be Stovall he is a class act, anyone who swims at Georgia is tough as they get, he has a strong second 100 and he had a great swim at trials.

Women’s 200 IM

Gold – Stephanie Rice

Silver – Natalie Coughlin

Bronze – Katie Hoff

I hate doing this, I hate betting against Hoff, watching a week of her workouts and knowing that Yetter is as good as they get when it comes to planning it is hard to do, but I think fatigue will catch up with her in this race. Both Rice and Coughlin will go out extremely fast, the breast is their common weakness and even though Hoff will put on a good push, especially in the breaststroke, I don’t believe she will have enough to catch the two speedsters.

Men’s 4 x 200 free relay

Gold – United States

Silver – Russia

Bronze – Australia

Just like the men’s 200 butterfly I don’t believe I need to put a rationale for my gold medal choice in this one – the Americans will smash everyone like a guitar. I am going to go the way of my compatriot and be an Aussie hater in this one, it will be close between them and the Russians, but Russia will come away with the silver.

Once again I sit here at my computer wanting to pick someone else and of course that someone else would be the Canadians. They do have a lot of room to make a big drop, but Hayden’s health has been up and down for some time, so much so he had to scratch from the 50 free at the Canadian trials. Sorry boys I just can’t do it, but please go out and prove me wrong.