Rio 2016 #Olympics What to Watch For — Thursday and Friday August 11–12
A daily guide to can’t-miss Olympic events and #TeamUSA action
The Rio 2016 Olympics are here at last! There’s lots to watch on a million channels, over 6500 hours in all, and it’s tough to keep track of everything — so I’ve put together a handy guide.
It’s not comprehensive; instead it should guide you through the highlights and can’t-miss events each day. It will focus largely on Team USA medal possibilities with an attempt to look in at other big names or interesting events as well. Each event is given 1 to 5 stars (★) to highlight importance. All television viewing times listed are Central Time and are approximate.
Please follow me here on Medium at Brandon Anderson and on Twitter at @wheatonbrando for daily updates as the Olympics continue.
Thursday August 11th
⋆ Men’s golf first round — all morning and early afternoon GOLF
Honestly there’s no reason to be watching round one of Olympic golf. Half the field turned down the invite, and there’s not even a cut so you have all weekend. This is a half-star — I even found a tiny star just for the occasion.
★★★★ Take the morning off from Olympics — 9am NOTTV
There’s just not much happening this morning — and that’s ok. Take a break. Sleep in. Go outside and get some fresh air. Spend time with your family. Catch up on the DVR. Actually get some work done for the first time all week.
★★★★ Tennis singles — USA Madison Keys vs Russia, USA Steve Johnson vs Russia — 9am Bravo
As disappointing as our top tennis players have been (bye Serena), there’s room for a few fun underdog stories here with a pair of simultaneous matches. Keys has been on fire and is the favorite here against Daria Kasatkina. A win sends her to the semis. Johnson has been playing great as well and has seen the draw open up with Donskoy next. He heads to the quarters if victorious. Both matches are rescheduled after Wednesday rainout.
★★★★ Tennis doubles semifinal — USA Sock / Johnson vs TBD — 12pm Bravo
When the Bryan brothers had to withdraw from men’s doubles, most gave up USA hopes for dead, but Jack Sock and Steve Johnson have blazed through opponents so far without dropping a set. A win here guarantees them a medal and sends them to the gold medal match!
★ Men’s basketball — Brazil vs Croatia — 12pm (Central) USA
This game features a bunch of really quirky, interesting NBA players like Leandro Barbosa (Brazil/Suns), Mario Hezonja (Croatia/Magic), and Dario Saric (Croatia/76ers). Both of these teams have surprise wins over Spain already and are fighting for a surprise 2nd or 3rd place group finish.
★★ Women’s beach volleyball — USA Fendrick/Sweat vs Russia — 1:30pm NBC
Both teams are 0–2 so this is an elimination game for Fendrick and Sweat, who have struggled so far in Rio. Even a win here just gets them a play-in game for an opportunity to face one of the top two seeds in knockout.
★ Women’s judo 78kg bronze and gold matches — 2:20pm NBCSN
America’s Kayla Harrison should be competing in one of these matches. She won gold in 2012, the only US judo gold in history, and is the favorite to repeat. This will be our only look-in at a strange sport that features two bronze medal matches and two bronze medal winners for some reason.
★ Men’s beach volleyball — USA Dalhausser/Lucena vs Italy — 2:30pm NBC
Lucena and the big man Dalhausser are 2–0 and looking like the possible gold medal favorites right now with Brazil’s top pair Schmidt and Cerutti taking a shock loss Monday — though Dalhausser really struggled to the finish line with a possible injury Tuesday, so that’s something to keep an eye on. A win for the US here keeps them perfect and wins the group.
★★ Men’s rugby bronze and gold medal games — 4:40pm NBCSN
This is your last chance to check out rugby at these Olympics. The Americans are out, but it’s an entertaining watch anyway.
★★★★★ Olympic prime time on NBC — 7–11pm NBC
This is another big night of prime time, tonight featuring two huge USA showdowns first with Biles and Raisman in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition and then with Phelps and Lochte in the 200m IM. You’ll see lots of gymnastics and a bunch of swimming semis and finals too.
★★★★★ Women’s gymnastics individual all-around — USA Simone Biles & Aly Raisman — throughout 7–11pm NBC, encore 11:30pm NBC
Simone and Aly already won team gold on Tuesday but that was mostly a foregone conclusion with our stacked team. Now they go head-to-head for gold in the individual all-around competition after finishing 1st and 2nd in qualifying — with American Gabby Douglas 3rd as well but a stupid rule limits each country to two qualifiers so third best in the world wasn’t good enough. Simone has not lost an all-around title in over 3 years but Aly has been on peak form these Olympics and could give her a run for her money, and a couple top gymnasts from Russia and China will be in the mix too.
★ Men’s table tennis singles final — 7:30pm NBCSN
It’s your last chance to see ridiculously good ping pong as table tennis wraps up at the Olympics. The Americans are long since out, but you can watch China’s top two stars go head-to-head for gold.
★★ Men’s volleyball — USA vs Brazil — 8pm NBCSN
We haven’t seen any men’s indoor volleyball yet, so this is a good chance to check in — either on commercial or DVR. Brazil is the gold favorite and always brings a surprisingly raucous crowd to one of its favorite sports.
★ Women’s swimming 200m breaststroke — 8:15pm NBC
No Americans qualified for the finals here, but tune in to root against Lilly King’s Russian nemesis Yulia Efimova anyway.
★★★ Men’s swimming 200m backstroke — 8:25pm NBC
Fresh off his gold medal in the 100m backstroke, Ryan Murphy is back looking for another medal in the companion event.
★★★★★ Men’s swimming 200m IM — 9:00pm NBC
This is one of the big ones for USA, a likely gold-silver showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in a marquee race that could come down to the final touch. No other person in the world has won this race since 2003 besides these two. Lochte has had the edge lately but Phelps won in London. Who comes out on top here?
★★ Women’s swimming 100m freestyle — 9:15pm NBC
Australia has both of the fastest swimmers in this race and are big favorites, but American Simone Manuel surprised winning her semifinal and could have a shot at a medal. This one is always a wild finish.
★ Men’s swimming 100m butterfly semifinals — 9:30pm NBC
Michael Phelps races again in his top event, needing just a top 8 finish to secure a spot in Friday’s finals — hopefully he has enough left after swimming in the 200m IM less than an hour earlier.
Friday August 12th
★★ Men’s water polo — USA vs Montenegro — 9:40am (Central) USA
Team USA finally got their first win against France Wednesday but they have another tough match on tap with the Euro 16 runners-up Montenegro here. The Balkans love them some water polo. USA needs this one.
★★★ Men’s tennis quarterfinals — USA Steve Johnson vs Great Britain Murray — 10am Bravo
Friday is a big tennis day for Team USA with a bunch of underdog matches, kicking off here with Stevie Johnson taking on the gold favorite Andy Murray who just won Wimbledon on hard court a month ago. It’ll be a monster upset if Johnson even takes a set, but you never know.
★★★★★ Women’s soccer quarterfinals — USA vs Sweden — 11am NBCSN
Your Friday marquee event comes early in the day, so you may need to stream this one at work. Knockout play has started, which means a loss now ends the tournament for the World Cup champs. Here they face Sweden, who feature longtime US coach Pia Sundhage in a battle of mentor vs mentee US coach Jill Ellis. That could be an interesting twist in an otherwise uneven battle.
★★ Men’s rowing four finals — 11am NBC
Team USA is expected to be in the running for a medal here, with time approximate on Friday morning. Rowing is surprisingly interesting to watch and very calming at the same time (until the big finish!).
★★ Men’s tennis quarterfinals — 11:30am Bravo
There’s a pair of awesome matches here if you feel like skipping soccer or being unpatriotic. France’s Gail Monfils takes on Japan’s Kei Nishikori with two outstanding guys just outside the bubble of the usual top names in tennis — both great guys to root for if you like an underdog. Then speaking of underdogs, we’ll also have the home crowd rocking for Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci against Spanish favorite Rafa Nadal.
★★★ Men’s doubles bronze — USA Sock/Johnson vs Canada Popisil/Nestor — 1pm Bravo
Sock and Johnson finally lost a set for the first time Thursday and now find themselves in the bronze medal match looking to finish the job and win a medal! It’s a busy day for both — Johnson will have already faced Murray earlier, and Sock has a mixed doubles match a couple hours later.
★★★★ Women’s tennis semifinals — USA Madison Keys vs Germany Angelique Kerber — 1pm Bravo
Another huge underdog match for the Americans, where overlooked Madison Keys has made it all the way to the semis but here faces now-favorite Kerber. It would be a big surprise for Keys to win here, but a win would guarantee a medal and might make her the favorite in the gold medal match.
★★ Women’s skeet shooting finals — 1:15pm MSNBC
Think Duck Hunt. This will go by very quickly, probably just 15 minutes or so. America’s Kim Rhode is trying to become the first person ever to win an individual medal at six consecutive Summer Olympics!
★★ Women’s basketball — USA vs Canada — 1:30pm NBCSN
Just a reminder that the US women’s basketball team is really absurdly good, as dominant as you still think the men’s team is. Tune in for awhile and find out for yourself.
★★ Men’s archery individual finals — 3:15pm NBCSN
This one’s airing on delay so they can package the highlights, so feel free to DVR and check-in whenever on America’s Brady Ellison as he pushes for a medal, no doubt against South Korea who traditionally dominate the event.
★ Women’s trampoline gold — 4pm CNBC
Another delayed airing with highlights, but grab a look at a fun cooky event. Nicole Ahsinger competes for USA in a relatively new event to the field.
★★★ Men’s basketball — USA vs Serbia — 5pm NBCSN
You haven’t heard of Serbia’s players but that doesn’t mean they’re not good. This is that team of 45-year-olds in your rec league that runs slow offensive sets, plays rugged dirty defense, knows every little trick and back cut in the book, and posts you up with their hairy sweaty backs. Serbia is good, and Teodosic et al could give USA problems if we overlook them.
★★ Women’s soccer quarterfinals — France vs Canada — 5pm CNBC
France and Canada show down in a battle of likely gold-medal opponents for Team USA, both teams that have given our women some trouble in the past. The winner likely faces Germany to get to the finals.
★ Men’s fencing team foil — 7pm NBCSN
Another delayed event for you to tape, and a last chance to check in on quirky fencing as USA could be in contention for team gold. Fencing is wild to watch, if by “wild” you mean the rules are so confusing that both competitors celebrate after every point thinking they’ve scored and have to let the ref arbitrarily sort things out at least 50% of the time.
★★★★ Olympic prime time on NBC — 7–11pm NBC
It’s a busy and varied night on NBC as track & field kicks off while swimming continues to wrap up, and gold medals are on the line in each. You’ll also find some diving action and a late beach volleyball quarterfinal.
★ Women’s swimming 200m backstroke — 8pm NBC
Maya DiRado has been on fire, but she’s a long shot for a medal here. Missy Franklin did not qualify.
★★★★★ Men’s swimming 100m butterfly — 8:10pm NBC
This is Michael Phelps’ last individual event ever at the Olympics, so you won’t want to miss it. Phelps is the favorite of course, but he’ll have to get by rival South African Chad le Clos and others one last time. Phelps has won three straight golds in this event — but by a combined 0.3 seconds.
★★★★ Women’s swimming 800m freestyle — 8:20pm NBC
It’s Katie Ledecky’s final individual event at Rio as she attempts to go 3 for 3 — though the drama here will mostly be whether she breaks the world record and by how much. Teammate Leah Smith will also contend for a medal. She was exuberant at US trials for finishing the race with Ledecky still in her vision. Katie broke the Olympic record in Thursday’s qualifying without really trying until the last 50m. That’s how good Katie Ledecky is, folks.
★ Men’s swimming 50m freestyle — 8:45pm NBC
This is a spring, just down to the other end of the pool and that’s it, so don’t blink or you’ll miss it (if your blinks take like 20 seconds for some ungodly reason). America’s Nathan Adrian should be in contention but honestly in a race this short, everyone is.
★★★ Women’s beach volleyball round of 16 — USA Walsh Jennings vs Italy — 10pm NBC
Knockout play begins in beach volleyball today as the field has been narrowed, with just 1 of 2 US teams moving on both in the men’s and women’s competition. Walsh Jennings lost just her second set ever at the Olympics a couple days ago but won the match to remain undefeated. She begins her real title defense with knockout play here.
Please follow me here on Medium at Brandon Anderson and on Twitter at @wheatonbrando for daily updates as the Olympics continue.
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Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, humor, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here. Shout out to Aria and Wes for their help getting things together for this Olympics guide.
