A fan’s guide to Tuesday at the Games

Who’s faster than Lochte? A 16-year-old Chinese girl.

American Michael Phelps is on the verge of Olympic history. His countryman, Ryan Lochte, says this will be his Olympics, emphasized by his 400m individual medley gold back at the start the games. However, neither is king of the waters in London; that crown belongs to the queen: 16-year-old Ye Shiwen of China.

Ye won gold in the 400m women’s individual medley, breaking the world record, but that’s not what people are talking about. Ye swam her final 50m of freestyle in 28.93 seconds — faster the gold-winning Lochte in the men’s version of the event. Lochte went 29.10 seconds in his final 50m.

Ye returns today for the 200m IM final, and you can be sure everyone will have the stop watches ready.

Approximate time to watch: Women’s 200m IM – CTV 3:30 p.m. Eastern/12:30 Pacific

Before you break the record, you have to tie it first:

Michael Phelps is on the verge of tying Larisa Latynina for most Olympic medals of all-time with 18. Phelps has yet to win gold in London, but he’ll just need to finish anywhere on the podium in the 200m butterfly to tie the record. It would normally sound like an easy task for the current gold medalist and world-record holder, but London’s waters have not been easy for Phelps.

In the heats, he finished with the fifth fastest time, and fourth fastest in the semi-finals. Can he move up at least one spot for the finals?

Approximate time to watch: Men’s 200m Butterfly – CTV 3:30pm Eastern/12:30 Pacific

Win and we’re in:

Canada’s women’s soccer team have it all on the line against Sweden. After losing 2-1 to world champions Japan to open the tournament, then beating South Africa 3-0, a win in the final group match will guarantee Canada advances to the quarterfinals. Team Sweden won bronze at last year’s World Cup, but it will have to overcome injuries that have reportedly taken out five starters for the match. Canada’s Christine Sinclair is third in all-time women’s international scoring, and will look to add to her two-goal tally. But she’d happily prefer a win instead.

When to watch: Women’s soccer: Canada vs. Sweden – Sportsnet 9:30 a.m. Eastern/6:30 a.m. Pacific

Final score: 2-2. Canada comes back from an early two goal deficit to scrounge out a tie, which is enough to qualify for the knockout round.

Early-morning dip:

Brent Hayden with Team Canada failed to qualify for the 4x100m freestyle relay finals, so he will be looking for better luck in the individual event. Competing in his third and final Olympic games, the 2011 world championship silver medallist will be looking for his first Olympic medal. On Tuesday morning, he advanced to the semi-finals in the 100m freestyle. No matter what happens, Hayden will be sporting new jewelry Aug. 19 when he gets married.

When to watch: Men’s 100m freestyle semi-final – CTV 2:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Pacific

Update:  Hayden qualifies easily for the semi-finals after a strong early morning heat.

Canadians in tough for tennis:

Aleksandra Wozniak will be on Centre Court tomorrow morning, after an opening round win today. Across from her, however, will be 3-time gold medalist and 7-time grand slam winner Venus Williams. A Wozniak win would be a momentous upset. Canada’s top male tennis player, Milos Raonic, will be in equally tough against world No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Tsonga has made it to the past two Wimbledon semi-finals, while Raonic struggled at Wimbledon this year, losing in the secnd round. The two matches will be happening at the same time, and just one upset would be massive for Tennis Canada.

When to watch: Tennis – Sportsnet 7 a.m. Eastern/4a.m. Pacific

Update: After losing the opening set 3-6, Raonic came back strong to win the second set 6-3. After a rain delay, Raonic and Tsonga turned this into an epic marathon final set, one sadly ending with the Canadian losing 25-23(!).

Venus Williams had a much shorter day to handle Wozniak. The second round match went to the American 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour.

Daily Recap: 30 July 2012

Highs: Ruta Meilutyte won Lithuania’s first ever Olympic gold in the swimming pool. The 15-year-old led from start to finish of the 100m breaststroke to bring home her nations first medal of this years games.

Great Britain ended a century old drought on the gymnastics floor, when the host country won bronze in the men’s Artistic Team final. While they initially thought they won silver, a successful protest over the difficulty ranking for one of Japan’s events pushed the UK down to third. Nonetheless, the Brits went home proud, while Prince Harry and William were in the crowd to watch.

Low: Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella is expelled from the games after publishing a racist tweet toward the South Koreans after losing to them 2-1.

Canadian sweep: All four Canadians won their respective tennis matches today in straight sets. Aleksandra Wozniak and Milos Raonic move onto the second round in the singles competition, while Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor move on in the doubles bracket.

 

Tuesday’s early headlines: Polishing the bronze.

Canada’s synchronized divers are rising higher. After a 7th place finish in Beijing 2008, Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion rose to the top of the 10m platform and came down with bronze.This opened the floodgates for a day full of medals.

Canada’s pride extended moments later when, Antoine Valois-Fortier won a bronze medal in men’s judo 81kg weight class. The 22-year-old upset the No. 10 ranked American Travis Stevens to become the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal since his coach, Nicolas Gill, won silver in Sydney 2000.

Four years ago, weightlifter Christine Girard, just barely missed the podium, finishing fourth. Today, she lifted 103kg in the snatch, followed by 133kg in the clean and jerk, to win Canada’s third bronze of the day.