Olympic events to watch Monday while you’re pretending to work

Big fish:

Ryan Lochte has said many times that this will be his Olympics.

Exhibit A:  Gold in the 400-metre IM.  Example No. 2: Silver in the freestyle relay.

Today the swimmer lines up in the 200-metre freestyle finals against world record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany and Sun Yang, China’s phenom, who has also earned a gold medal in London.

Michael Phelps is also up today in his signature event — the 200-metre butterfly. Should he make the podium, he’ll have 18 Olympic medals to his name and be tied for first in the competition for most all-time Olympic medals EVER.

Before you head to work:

Early London mornings plus the time difference make it especially difficult for Canada’s rowers to get the attention they deserve. The men’s eight is back in the water after finishing last in their opening heat Saturday morning. The world-record holders will have to do better in the repechage to qualify for the finals.

Soon after, the men’s fours will have a crack at their first heats. Winning their opening heat will put them directly in the semi-finals. Otherwise, they will be part of the repechage on Tuesday morning.

Canadians on the court:

The women’s basketball team will be looking to rebound from a late collapse against the Russians. The women should handle their British opponents with relative ease, though we all know who the crowd will be heavily behind.

At the All-England club, rain delayed Milos Raonic’s opening tennis match until today. The best singles player in Canada’s history, and the current world No. 25, will take on Japan’s Tatsumi Ito. A Raonic victory will put him in a tough second-round match-up against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.

Unblockable:

Brazil’s women are back on the beach for volleyball, and they are killing (volleyball jargon) the rest of the field. Following a World Championship last year, Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca walked over their first opponents in 30 minutes, beating tiny Mauritius 21-5, 21-10. The world No. 1 team should have a tougher opponent in Germany, but Brazil should still win.

Record breaker:

Im Dong-Hyun is looking for Korea’s first individual gold medal in archery, and he’s back in action for the next two rounds Monday morning in hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals.

It makes no difference if he is legally blind, with 20/200 vision in his right eye and 20/100 vision in his left, Im set a world record for 72 arrows during the opening round with a score of 699.

“This is just the first round, so I will not get too excited by it,” Im told the Associated Press. Look for him to score more than 700 on his bid to win the gold.