Olympics: Day 3 Prelims Heat Sheet Posted

ATHENS, Greece, August 16. EACH morning Swiminfo will be posting the heat sheets for the day’s events at the Olympic Games in Athens. Be sure to check them out so you have the best information provided to make your medal predictions! Enjoy Swiminfo's coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games and be sure to check back frequently to get all the action from Athens!!

Women's 200m Freestyle
Marshall. Jedrzejczak. van Almsick. Poll. Benko. Popchanka. Choose your Chinese. All these ladies, and maybe even one or two others, have a shot at winning this one. Throughout her long career Franzi van Almsick has done some amazing things when properly motivated. As this is her last Olympics, count on her to be motivate and finaly get her gold. Jedrzejczak has already won 2 silvers; make it 3. And for bronze we'll be a homer and pick Benko, whose American record time trails only Franzi on the all-time list of active athletes. U.S. Trials winner Dana Vollmer will have to swim well to move to the semi-finals, and a trip to the final would require a quantum improvement over the last month.

Men's 200m Butterfly
Michael Phelps is the prohibitive favorite in all his world record events. The 200 butterfly was his first world record. It would be a major shock if he does not win. His two main competitors from the standpoint of personal bests are both older and either terribly inconsistent (Franck Esposito, France) or swimming injured (Defending champion Tom Malchow). Competing on even footing for the minor medals with Esposito and Malchow are Korzeniowski (Poland), Matsuda and Yamamoto (Japan), Parry (Great Britain) and Norris who won bronze in this event before his home crowd in Sydney. To date, the most consistently good national squads have been the home Greeks and the Japanese. Go with Malchow for silver and either of the Japanese for third.

Women's 200m Individual Medley
Yana Klochcova, Ukraine, won both IMs in Sydney and has repeated here already at the 400 distance. She is a great champion. Consider her the favorite until proven otherwise. Of those with the top times for 2004, Amanda Beard is #1 and should be a factor, look for Katie Hoff has shown the resilience in her young career to rebound from her 400 debacle to medal and Aussie Alice Mills has to be feeling confident after her 4 x 100 freestyle relay gold, whereas Teresa Rohmann, Germany, was even slower than Hoff in the 400 distance and will not likely challenge.

–M. Duncan Scott

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