Olympic Swimming, 400 Free: Park Tae-Hwan a Tough Challenge for Peter Vanderkaay

Peter Vanderkaay is the United States' best hope for a medal in the 400-meter freestyle race, but it will take a monumental effort to beat South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan.

The heats for the event will swim on Saturday, July 28 at 5:52 a.m. ET, and the final will take place at 2:49 p.m. ET on the same day.

Vanderkaay is a 28-year-old competing in his third Olympics. He helped the United States win gold in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay in Athens and Beijing, and also won bronze at the 2008 games in the 200-meter freestyle.

He missed out on a medal by less than a second in Beijing, and suffered through the same result at the 2011 World Championships.

At both of these events, Park took the gold medal. The 22-year-old has dominated the 400-meter distance since bursting onto the international swimming scene at the 2006 Asian games as a teenager.

He won gold at that event and at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships. He was victorious again at the 2007 World Championships before winning his first Olympic gold medal in 2008.

At the 2009 World Championships, Park had an inexplicably poor performance, and many speculated that it was due to a change in his swimsuit. However, he denied that this was the cause of his lackluster result (via HeraldSun.com.au).

The phenom put the 2009 event in the past and rebounded with a gold medal in 2011, and now he is ready to continue his dominance over all other contestants in the 400-meter freestyle race.

Both Vanderkaay and Park will have to be mindful of Germany’s Paul Biedermann, a 25-year-old who set the world record in the event in 2009. China’s Sun Yang has proved to be extremely fast in the longer freestyle races, and he could end up on the podium as well.

Still, Park is the clear favorite for the 400-meter freestyle, and any of the other contenders will need to swim the best race of their lives in order to beat him.