It's the most wonderful time of the year: the Olympics! What's better than ending the last few weeks of summer vacation by cheering on team USA to another Olympic Gold? Nothing! From swimming to gymnastics, team USA is dominant this year sending over 500 athletes to the Rio games. While every event at the Olympics is special, here are some of the top must watch events of Rio 2016.
1. Basketball
Both the men and women's teams are the current Olympic champions, having taken home the gold in London. The men's team carries a definite advantage, as they carry various NBA athletes such as fan-favorites Draymond Green, Paul George, and Kevin Durant. Despite missing some key NBA stars, team USA is still very capable of winning that gold medal once again. The men's bronze medal game will be played August 21st at 10:20 a.m. with the gold medal game to be played later at 2:45 p.m.
2. Diving
While team USA is extremely capable of taking home a medal in diving events such as the men's 10m platform where David Boudia is the reigning Olympic gold medalist, China dominates this sport. They hold a medal in every single event from London 2012 and are a force to be reckoned with here in Rio. Cheer on Boudia on Friday, August 19th at 3:00 for the preliminary 10m platform dive, with the finals to be held Saturday August 20th at 3:30.
3. Soccer
The women's US national team have been heroes since the 2012 games where they successfully won the gold over Japan after losing to them in the 2011 world cup. From then on out, the national team has been ranked number 1 in the world for almost every year, with the exception of Germany taking their place in the beginning of 2015. The team reclaimed their number one spot after a tremendous 2015 World Cup win against Japan. Can they pull it off again? Olympic veterans Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo have already made a splash in these 2016 games, having been the superstars of their debut game against the French national team. Lloyd scored the one and only goal of the game although France out-shot team USA, putting Solo's skills to the test. Watch team USA on August 9th as they take on Colombia in hopes of securing a spot in the quarterfinals to begin on August 12th.
4. Swimming
When you think of Olympic swimming and team USA, you think of the most decorated Olympic athlete ever: Michael Phelps. Phelps returns to the Rio games with a heavy heart as this is his fifth and final Olympic games and hopes to win gold once again. You can watch Phelps swim every day from August 7th to the 13th in events ranging from the 100m butterfly to the 4x100 freestyle relay - an event that Phelps and teammates Nathan Adrian, Caleb Dressel, and Ryan Held recently dominated, allowing them to take home the gold in Rio.
Women's swimming this year is just as stacked as the men's team as Missy Franklin returns to the Olympics again, hungry for gold. Katie Ledecky has proven to be one to watch during these Rio games, as she's already won an individual gold medal in the 400m freestyle race, breaking her own world record with seconds to spare. Catch her again in the 800m freestyle August 11th at 12:26pm. Dana Vollmer and Leah Smith are some of the other women swimmers in Rio to watch, as they have each already medalled, Vollmer with a silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay and bronze in the 100m butterfly, and Smith with a bronze in 400m freestyle. Smith is set to race again with Ledecky in the 800m freestyle on the 11th.
5. Gymnastics
Gymnastics is without a doubt one of the most popular Olympic sports to watch and this year, team USA is a straight powerhouse. After the first day of competition, they lead the pack by over ten points, with China and Russia trailing behind. It is no doubt that USA is the team to beat, as they have Simone Biles leading their team as the reigning all-around world champion. She, along with the rest of team USA including Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian, are favored to win the team all-around that takes place on August 9th beginning at 3:00pm.
Raisman and Douglas return to their second Olympics and after a long day of competing against one another for a spot in the individual all-around finals, Raisman ended up on top along with Biles, who will head into the finals taking place August 11th at 3:00 p.m. Biles is again favored to take home gold for her outstanding floor exercise and vault, and even possibly beam. In all of these individual events, she has the chance to take home the gold. The vault finals will take place on August 14th, bean finals on the 15th, and floor exercise finals on the 16th.
Laurie Hernandez, a fan-favorite, excels in floor exercise as well as beam, where she will compete in the individual event finals in hopes of taking home a medal. Madison Kocian was chosen by team USA gymnastics coordinator Marta Karolyi to specialize in uneven bars, as she dominated this event at Olympic trials and on the first day of Olympic competition. She will compete in the uneven bars finals on August 14th against other dominant gymnasts, such as Aliya Mustafina from Russia.
