Day 3 of Swimming at the London Olympics

Men's 200 Meter Freestyle:

Yannick Agnel (AP/David J Phillip)

The Men's 200 meter Freestyle was one of the most anticipated events of this year's Olympics and it certainly lived up to the billing.  The stacked field included American Ryan Lochte, the 400 IM gold medal winner, China's Sun Yang, the 400 Freestyle gold medal winner, South Korea's Park Taehwan, the 400 Freestyle silver medalist, German's Paul Biedermann, the world record holder, and France's Yannick Agnel, whose incredible comeback in the final leg of the 4x100 Freestyle relay secured the gold medal for France.  Agnel took the swim out at a blazing fast speed and was never caught, securing yet another gold medal for France.  Agnel stopped the clock at 1:43.14 and finished a full body length ahead of the field.  Park and Sun, both of whom train in Australia, tied for 2nd place to add silver medals to their impressive resumes.  Lochte missed the medal stand by only one tenth of a second.

Women's 100 Meter Backtroske:

Missy Franklin
(AP/David J Phillip)

Missy Franklin, the 17 year old from Colorado entered the London games with extremely high expectations, but even she could be excused for failing to perform in the finals of the 100 backstroke only 10 minutes after swimming in the semifinals of the 200 freestyle.  The six footer had a very poor start and fell far behind Emily Seebohm of Australia, the favorite after finishing the semifinals with the fastest time.  Franklin had a terrific finish and passed Seebohm in the final 10 meters to win the gold medal.  Franklin stopped the clock with a time of 58.33.  Aya Terakawa of Japan claimed the bronze medal.

Men's 100 Meter Backstroke:

Matt Grevers (Getty Images)

Matt Grevers of the United States won his first individual gold medal in the 100 meter backstroke.  Grevers set an Olympic record with his time of 52.16.  American Nick Thoman, whose grandfather was a swimming world record holder in the 1940's, joined his teammate, Grevers, atop the medal stand by claiming the silver medal.  Japan's Ryosuke Irie took home the bronze medal.

Women's 100 Meter Breaststroke:

Ruta Meilutyte, a 15 year old from Lithuania, won the gold medal in the 100 meter breaststroke, shocking the swimming world which expected American Rebecca Soni to win the event.  Meilutyte, who trains in England, stopped the clock at 1:05.47 winning Lithuania's first ever Olympic swimming  medal.  Soni, the world champion in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, finished only one tenth behind Meilutyte to claim a silver medal for the United States.

Ruta Meilutyte (Twitter/Ruta Meilutyte)

Day 1 of Swimming at the 2012 London Olympics

Men's 400 Meter IM:

Ryan Lochte

American Ryan Lochte's absolutely dominant performance in the 400 IM was the main headline of day 1 of the London Olympics.  Lochte's time of 4:05.18 blew away the field, defeating Brazilian silver medalist Thiago Pereira by nearly three and a half seconds.  Lochte was first from the opening leg of the swim, and pulled far away from the field in the backstroke leg of the event.  Lochte's world-renowned flip turns gave him a huge advantage over the opposition.  The first major shock of the Olympics was that American Michael Phelps, the two time defending Olympic champion and world record holder in the event, did not medal, placing 4th.  17 year old Kosuke Hagino of Japan who had the fastest time in the preliminaries won the bronze medal. 

Men's 400 Meter Freestyle:

Sun Yang

China's Sun Yang won the gold medal in the 400 Freestyle with a time of 3:40.14, missing out on breaking Paul Biedermann's world record in the event by under 0.1 seconds.  South Korea's Park Taehwan, the defending Olympic champion, led for the first 300 meters and won the silver medal.  Park was disqualified in the preliminaries of the event, however after video review was reinstated in the finals of the event.  The U.S.'s Peter Vanderkaay won the bronze medal in what will likely be his final Olympics.

Women's 400 Meter IM:

Ye Shiwen

China's Ye Shiwen put on a tremendous show in winning the gold medal in the 400 IM.  The 16 year old broke Stephanie Rice's world record with a time of 4:28.43.  At the 300 meter mark American Elizabeth Beisel had a full body length lead over Ye, who's unbelievable finish left the silver medalist Beisel a full three body length's behind by the end.  Shwen's final 50 meters of freestyle were incredibly even faster than those of Ryan Lochte, the winner of the men's 400 IM.

Women's 4x100 Meter Freestyle relay:

The Australian women won the gold medal with the Netherlands coming in second place.  Despite having the lead after 300 meters, the American women were passed in the final leg of the relay by both international swimming powers.  The Americans have not won this event since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Australian 4x100 freestyle relay team