Olympics Schedule 2012: What to Expect in the Men's Swimming Medal Races

With the first two men's races already in the books, the competition is starting to heat up quickly. There are expectations for the rest of the races in the London Games, and the medal races are the biggest part. 

There will be a lot of fight and fire in the competitions, and the United States looks to be a favorite in these competitions because of Michael Phelps, Tyler Clary and 400-meter Individual Medley Gold Medal winner Ryan Lochte.

100m Breaststroke

When: Sunday July, 29th at 3:54 PM ET

Projected Winners

Gold: Cameron Van Der Burgh, South Africa

Silver: Fabio Scozzoli, Italy

Bronze: Brenton Rickard, Australia

Ven Der Burgh is the name to watch in this one. He was able to break the Olympic record for the event, with a 58.83 second time. Scozzoli came in at second, but it wasn't even close. Rickard and Scozzoli could end up flipped when all is said and done, because they were a total of .06 seconds apart in the semifinal trials.

4 X 100m Freestyle Relay

When: Monday July, 29th at 3:08 PM ET

Projected Winners

Gold: United States

Silver: Australia

Bronze: France

The United States and Australia field the two best freestyle teams in the world. Featuring Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, the United States has arguably the best team in the world. However, the Australians will have an excellent group competing in this one, with James Magnussen leading it up. Also, the French team can never be counted out, especially with the second-best qualifying time.

200m Freestyle

When: Monday July, 30th at 2:43 PM ET

Projected Winners

Gold: Ryan Lochte, United States

Silver: Agnel Yannick, France

Bronze: Paul Biedermann, Germany

Paul Biedermann is the current world record holder, but Lochte and Agnel Yannic are going to challenge tremendously for the gold. Yannick has the best qualifying time for the Olympics at 1 minute, 44.42 seconds; however, Lochte's time was just .02 seconds slower and he could very easily ride the adrenaline from the gold he just won in the IM to a title here.

100m Backstroke

When: Monday July, 30th at 2:58 PM ET

Projected Winners

Gold: Matt Grevers, United States

Silver: Camille Lacourt, France

Bronze: Nick Thoman, United States

Nick Thoman is somewhat of a surprise this year. He has been excellent, though, and qualified well with a time at 52.86 seconds. Camille Lacourt is the arguably best French specialty swimmer in the Olympics. However, he is bested in this event by the Matt Grevers. The American hit an excellent qualifying time of 52.08, which is just 0.14 seconds slower than fellow American Aaron Piersol's world record.

These are just the races for the 29th and the 30th, but expect exciting races for the duration of the entire Olympics. Especially when the world gets towards the end of these Olympics, and the longer distance races are done.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL Draft. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek and also runs the NFL Draft Website ScarDraft.com and the host of Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

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