In exactly one year from now all eyes in the world will be on Rio as the opening ceremonies kick off and the 2016 Olympic Games officially begin.
The Rio games will be an extremely important one for the sport of swimming as a mix of history and new blood are set to intertwine in order to simultaneously start and end a new era of swimming. With the stars of swimming staying in the sport longer than ever before, these 2016 Olympic Games will be unlike any games ever contested.
Assuming that all of the following athletes qualify for their respective events, it will mark what will be the last Olympic appearance for swimming legend Michael Phelps assuming he doesn’t attempt another comeback following the games. It will mark the return of distance star Katie Ledecky to the Olympic stage where any additional hardware will lock her in place as the greatest female distance swimmer of all time.
It will likely feature Ryan Lochte going head-to-head with Phelps for one last crazed showdown. Laszlo Cseh attempting to emerge from the shadows of some of his adversaries in order to win an Olympic gold medal. It will likely showcase Olympic legend Natalie Coughlin looking to add more on one last Olympic medal haul.
Katinka Hosszu of Hungary will look to add an Olympic medal to her resume, something that has thus far eluded her career despite all of her international success.
One of the most amazing aspects of sports is the achievement and failure of dreams. As some of the stars of the past few Olympiads will likely be looking to add more fame and glory, a new age of swimmers will be looking to create their own fortune and possibly begin establishing themselves as the new era of Olympic legends.
Adam Peaty of Great Britain is a young talent who has the world at his fingertips in the breaststroke. American Ryan Murphy showed that he could possibly be a threat for gold in the 100m backstroke. Sarah Sjostrom could continue to dominate the 100m butterfly among other events, establishing herself as one of the best butterflies in swimming history.
The beauty is that the teams for the most part are undecided. There’s plenty of talent that could emerge in order to make the Olympic team just as Ledecky did in 2012.
The only teams that have been decided thus far as far as swimming goes are the open water rosters for most countries. Those athletes know where they will be a year from today, and know that the clock is ticking for time to prepare for the 31st summer Olympiad.
I hope the open water swimmers (triathletes, yachters, rowers, etc.) don’t yet know where they’ll be, exactly. Cause you couldn’t get me in the planned water in anything but a sealed submarine with its own air supply.
Where did the time go???!!!!!!!???????!!!!!!!!!