2012 Olympics - Women's Swimming (Day 1)

The Guide

Swimmers use four strokes: freestyle (or front crawl), breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. A medley race is one where all four strokes are used. Most of the races take place in the middle eight lanes of a 50 metre long, 10 lane wide pool, but a longer 10km race takes place in open water.

There will be 14 individual events at London 2012, added to three relays. The individual events comprise freestyle races over 50 metres, 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres and 800 metres. There are two events each in backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly (100m and 200m).

200m Individual Women’s Medley:  One of the most competitive events of the whole games, the 200m individual medley has at least 5 in single figures for a gold medal, and none of the 5 winning would surprise. Young Chinese star Ye Shiwen (3/1 general favourite) won the 2011 World Championship with a stunning win after her huge kick in the final leg, roaring home to beat to defeat defending champion Ariana Kukors, an American seven years her senior, and she sets a high standard to aim at for all comers here if in the same form – with no real reason to think that she isn’t. Australia’s reigning Champion at both this and the 400m, Stephanie Rice missed out on a medal last year but by all accounts she is meant to be sharper this year round (see below, 400m IM preview and that will see her competing for medals in the finals later today, which is remarkable considering the shoulder trouble she’s had of late. 

A stronger hope may well be Alicia Coutts though, who was second to Shiwen in the World Championships and trades at around 11/2 with Skybet while being nearly half that price across the board, and at evens for a medal, the latter making most appeal. The US duo of Ariana Kukorz and Catlin Leverenz are tricky to separate. 2009 World Champion and 2011 World Bronze Medallist Kurokorz holds the record here but he world-record time, posted by Ariana Kukors at the 2009 World Championships and at the height of the high-tech suit era, is widely considered to be untouchable and serves no guide now it’s back to textile suits. Leverenz beat her at the Olympic trials and if repeating that, has a medal shot. And what of Britain? Hannah Miley was only 11^th fastest in 2008 but is judged to have come on leaps and bounds since with extra effort and her time in the trials for this event (2:10.77) would have been ‘good enough for any Olympic title, bar 2008 in the dawn of the turbo-suited era’. It’s unlikely that she can deal with the elite at this distance - her real chance to shine is at 400m, where she is Commonwealth Champion - but she can make the final and a lumpy bet on her doing so at 4/6 seems good value.

Advice

5 pts Hannah Miley to reach final (4/6 Ladbrokes)

1 pt Ye Shiwen (3/1 general)

Stephanie Rice has made a remarkable comeback from injury problems
and can gain a medal once again

400m Individual Women’s Medley: No woman from the US has won the 400m individual medley since Janet Evans in 1988 but wonderkid Elizabeth Beizel is the outstanding choice based on her world title triumph last summer, where she won by more than two seconds when clocking of 4:31.78, beating Australia's Stephanie Rice and Great Britain's Hannah Miley. At the US trials, she beat Caitlin Leverenz by nearly three seconds and missed the US record by barely six-tenths of a second, so she comes here in top form and ready to swim for her life, so the 11/10 on gold is close to maximum bet potential.

Rice and Miley are the other big medal contenders, and both look excellent bets for medals today. Having already highlighted Miley’s strong progress, 4/5 for a medal is tempting with Ladbrokes given that her time of four minutes 32.67 seconds in the longer event was the second fastest ever swum in a textile suit (bettered only by Beizel). Rice posted a time of four minutes 33.35 seconds in Adelaide, which suggests she’s coming to the boil in her best event – she does hold the WC at this event that he claimed in such tenacious style at the Beijing games. At 13/8 for a medal, she is impossible to ignore. Hungarian Katinka Hosszu has been 4:32.83 this year and is said to be in contention for gold. Hosszu and Another European, Spain's Mireia Belmonte, has already been in the 4:33 range this season, so along with China's Li Xuanxu and Ye Shiwen, both warrant attention although the 3 at the front should come home in that order.

Advice

4 pts Elizabeth Beisel (11/10 general)

2 pts Stephanie Rice & Hannah Miley to make medals (13/8 Betfred, 4/5 Ladbrokes)