Historic Record at Stake as Phelps Swims in Two Gold Medal Finals!

Also on NBC Tonight:

“Fab Five” of U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Must Unite as Team

Spectacle & Struggle Ahead for Synchronized Women’s Divers

 

Tonight on NBC, Michael Phelps swims in two gold medal finals – the 4×200 freestyle relay and the 200 butterfly – giving him the chance to become the most decorated Olympian of all-time. Phelps currently has 17 Olympic career medals and the Olympic career medal record is 18. Also in primetime, the reigning world champion U.S. women’s gymnastics team featuring Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber, also known as the “Fab Five,” look to win the gold over Russia, Romania and China.

TUESDAY, JULY 31 (Day 4)

8 p.m. – Midnight (ET/PT)

Women’s Gymnastics – Team Gold Medal Final

Swimming – Gold Medal Finals

Men’s 200M Butterfly

Men’s 4 x 200M Freestyle Relay

Women’s 200M Freestyle

Women’s 200M Individual Medley

Women’s Diving – Synchronized Platform Gold Medal Final

·         Gymnastics takes center stage as the reigning world champion U.S. women seek their first Olympic crown since the “Magnificent Seven” struck gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Michigan’s Jordyn Wieber, the 2011 world all-around champion, and Gabby Douglas, who trained for the Games alongside four-time Beijing medalist Shawn Johnson, lead an American team of Olympic newcomers that is favored for gold over rivals Russia, Romania and China.

·         Michael Phelps has his busiest night of the Games. First, he will swim for what is expected to be his third straight 200m butterfly gold medal – which could also give him 19 career medals, setting a new record. Less than an hour later, Phelps will be back in the pool for the 4x200m freestyle relay. This time, he teams up with Ryan Lochte on a U.S. squad that is favored for gold – which could give Phelps career medal No. 20. In the women’s 200m freestyle, 17-year-old phenom Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt, who took the year off from the University Georgia to train alongside Phelps under coach Bob Bowman, will challenge Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, who has dominated the event by winning two world titles and setting a world record since she won gold in Beijing.

·         What’s harder than diving from 33 feet in the air with perfect form? Doing it in perfect sync with the person next to you. That’s the challenge for the divers in the women’s synchronized platform competition. Another challenge: topping China, which has won gold all three times the event has been contested.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1 (DAY 5)

8 p.m. – Midnight (ET/PT)

Swimming – Gold Medal Finals

Men’s 200M Breaststroke

Men’s 100M Freestyle

Women’s 200M Butterfly

Women’s 4 x 200M Freestyle Relay

Men’s Gymnastics – All-Around Gold Medal Final

Women’s Beach Volleyball – May-Treanor/Walsh (U.S.) vs. D. Schwaiger/S. Schwaiger (Austria)

Men’s Diving –Synchronized Springboard Gold Medal Final

• One night after they go head-to-head in the 200m freestyle, Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin team up to lead the U.S. in the 4x200m freestyle relay, hoping to reclaim the event from Australia after losing in Beijing for the first time since it was added to the Olympic program in 1996. In the men’s 100m freestyle, top American and former Cal standout Nathan Adrian will try to knock off favorite James Magnussen, the brash new leader of Australian swimming, while Auburn-trained Brazilian star Cesar Cielo is also among a deep international field. Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima, already the greatest breaststroker of all time, is hoping to complete a third straight sweep of the 100m and 200m breaststroke events as he takes on the longer race tonight. In semifinal action, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte hit the water for the 200m individual medley, while Lochte pulls double-duty in the 200m backstroke.
• In gymnastics, another Japanese legend, triple world champion Kohei Uchimura, looks to cement his status as one of the greatest gymnasts of all-time by winning the Olympic gold he came one place short of four years ago as a 19-year-old in Beijing. Attempting to stand in his way should be two Americans from unlikely backgrounds: Bronx native John Orozco, the 19-year-old son of a former New York Sanitation Department crew supervisor, and Cuban-born Danell Leyva, whose skillful routines are accompanied by the hyper-animated reactions of his coach and stepfather Yin Alvarez.

• Beach volleyball, one of the Games’ hottest sports, continues at Horse Guards Parade in the heart of ceremonial London. Just down the road from the Queen’s home at Buckingham Palace, the Queens of the sand, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, are eyeing a golden three-peat after sweeping the competition in Athens and Beijing without dropping a set.

In the men’s synchronized springboard, diving’s odd couple looks to continue its winning ways and help the U.S. onto the medal stand. Separated by 13 years and 1700 miles, four-time Olympian Troy Dumais and Stanford freshman Kristian Ipsen won world silver in 2009 just months after they began training together.