Here are our medal picks in Olympic swimming at the Tokyo Games
TOKYO — USA Swimming’s first Olympics in a quarter century without Michael Phelps predictably will result in a smattering of individual gold medals for a handful of American stars, but no singular Phelpsian performance.
According to Paste BN’s medal projections for the swimming competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, U.S. women will bring home 15 individual medals, including four gold — three from distance freestyle legend Katie Ledecky and one from breaststroker Lilly King.
U.S. men are predicted to win eight individual medals, including five gold — three from freestyle and butterfly specialist Caeleb Dressel, one from backstroker Ryan Murphy and one from Olympic newcomer Michael Andrew.
In the relays, the American strength is in the medley relays, which feature all four strokes. The United States is predicted to win the men’s and women’s 4x100-meter medley relays, and also a new Olympic event, the mixed 4x100 medley relay, featuring two women and two men competing for each nation.
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Add it all up, and the United States is projected to win 12 gold medals and 29 total medals in the pool. If that comes to pass, those numbers would fall short of the U.S. medal haul at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, where the United States won 16 gold and 33 medals overall in three fewer events than will be on the 2020 Olympic swimming program.
In addition to the mixed medley relay, for the first time ever, women will be competing in the 1,500-meter freestyle in the Olympics. For the first time since 1904, men will be competing in the 800 freestyle.
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SWIMMING MEDAL PICKS
Men
50 free
Gold: Caeleb Dressel, USA
Silver: Vladimir Morozov, ROC
Bronze: Ben Proud, Great Britain
100 free
Gold: Caeleb Dressel, USA
Silver: Kliment Kolesnikov, ROC
Bronze: Kyle Chalmers, Australia
200 free
Gold: Duncan Scott, Great Britain
Silver: Tom Dean, Great Britain
Bronze: Katsuhiro Matsumoto, Japan
400 free
Gold: Elijah Winnington, Australia
Silver: Jack McLoughlin, Australia
Bronze: Martin Malyutin, ROC
800 free
Gold: Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
Silver: Jack McLoughlin, Australia
Bronze: Mykhailo Romanchuk, Ukraine
1500 free
Gold: Florian Wellbrock, Germany
Silver: Mykhailo Romanchuk, Ukraine
Bronze: Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
100 breast
Gold: Adam Peaty, Great Britain
Silver: Arno Kamminga, Netherlands
Bronze: Michael Andrew, USA
200 breast
Gold: Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia
Silver: Anton Chupkov, ROC
Bronze: Shoma Sato, Japan
100 back
Gold: Ryan Murphy, USA
Silver: Kliment Kolesnikov, ROC
Bronze: Evgeny Rylov, ROC
200 back
Gold: Evgeny Rylov, ROC
Silver: Ryan Murphy, USA
Bronze: Luke Greenbank, Great Britain
100 fly
Gold: Caeleb Dressel, USA
Silver: Kristof Milak, Hungary
Bronze: Matthew Temple, Australia
200 fly
Gold: Kristof Milak, Hungary
Silver: Federico Burdisso, Italy
Bronze: Tomoru Honda, Japan
200 IM
Gold: Michael Andrew, USA
Silver: Duncan Scott, Great Britain
Bronze: Mitch Larkin, Australia
400 IM
Gold: Daiya Seto, Japan
Silver: Chase Kalisz, USA
Bronze: Lewis Clareburt, New Zealand
4x100 free
Gold: ROC
Silver: USA
Bronze: Australia
4x200 free
Gold: Great Britain
Silver: ROC
Bronze: Australia
4x100 medley relay
Gold: USA
Silver: Great Britain
Bronze: Russia
Women
50 free
Gold: Cate Campbell, Australia
Silver: Emma McKeon, Australia
Bronze: Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
100 free
Gold: Emma McKeon, Australia
Silver: Cate Campbell, Australia
Bronze: Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
200 free
Gold: Ariarne Titmus, Australia
Silver: Katie Ledecky, USA
Bronze: Yang Junxuan, China
400 free
Gold: Katie Ledecky, USA
Silver: Ariarne Titmus, Australia
Bronze: Li Bingjie, China
800 free
Gold: Katie Ledecky, USA
Silver: Ariarne Titmus, Australia
Bronze: Simona Quadarella, Italy
1500 free
Gold: Katie Ledecky, USA
Silver: Maddy Gough, Australia
Bronze: Simona Quadarella, Italy
100 breast
Gold: Lilly King, USA
Silver: Yuliya Efimova, ROC
Bronze: Lydia Jacoby, USA
200 breast
Gold: Tatjana Schoenmaker, South Africa
Silver: Annie Lazor, USA
Bronze: Molly Renshaw, Great Britain
100 back
Gold: Kaylee McKeown, Australia
Silver: Regan Smith, USA
Bronze: Kylie Masse, Canada
200 back
Gold: Kaylee McKeown, Australia
Silver: Rhyan White, USA
Bronze: Margherita Panziera, Italy
100 fly
Gold: Maggie MacNeil, Canada
Silver: Torri Huske, USA
Bronze: Zhang Yufei, China
200 fly
Gold: Zhang Yufei, China
Silver: Hali Flickinger, USA
Bronze: Regan Smith, USA
200 IM
Gold: Kaylee McKeown, Australia
Silver: Alex Walsh, USA
Bronze: Abbie Wood, Great Britain
400 IM
Gold: Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
Silver: Emma Weyant, USA
Bronze: Hali Flickinger, USA
4x100 free
Gold: Australia
Silver: USA
Bronze: Netherlands
4x200 free
Gold: Australia
Silver: USA
Bronze: China
4x100 medley relay
Gold: USA
Silver: Australia
Bronze: Canada
Mixed 4x100 medley relay
Gold: USA
Silver: Australia
Bronze: Great Britain