World Records Most Likely to Be Broken at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Olympic viewers want to see world records. It's why NBC shows the world-record-pace line during swimming telecasts, and it's constantly part of the conversation during track and field.
Both sports have a handful of competitors with a chance to break a world record over the next few weeks in Rio de Janeiro, mostly on the women's side.
This cheat sheet will help you witness history in Brazil. Let's take a look at the records in jeopardy during the 2016 Summer Games.
Note: All event final times are Eastern. You can view the full Olympic schedule on the event's official website.
Men's Decathlon
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Event final time: Aug. 17 throughout the day
Ashton Eaton is chasing Ashton Eaton. He owns the world record (9,045 points), which he set at the IAAF World Championships last year in Beijing. That record broke the previous record of 9,039 points he set at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2012. He went on to win gold in London that year.
Eaton is so dominant that he won the trials last month while dealing with nagging injuries to both legs—his right hamstring and his left quadriceps—and his score (8,750) was 145 points better than the next-best score worldwide this year.
"It's almost like I make a digital version of myself, try to compete against that," Eaton told the Associated Press at the trials (via NBCOlympics.com). "I had this little mini subgoal of trying to score 9,000 every decathlon. It would be cool never to go back to (8,000)."
If Eaton is operating at 100 percent in Rio, his own record is sure to be in trouble.
Women's 100-Meter Butterfly
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Event final time: Aug. 7, 9:03 p.m.
Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom is the best butterfly swimmer in the world, and she will look to improve on her world record in the 100-meter fly in Rio.
Sjostrom, who also owns the 50-meter record, set the 100-meter fly record at the world championships last year in Kazan, Russia, clocking in at 55.64 seconds. She's not far off that mark this year with a top time of 55.68.
None of the top swimmers in the world have more on the line in Rio. Sjostrom has won three world championships in the 100-meter fly (2009, 2013 and 2015), but she did not medal at the 2012 London Olympics, finishing fourth.
That should change in Rio, where Sjostrom could put herself in the conversation with American Katie Ledecky as the best female swimmer in the world. Ledecky is more dominant in her events, but Sjostrom is more versatile. She will swim three freestyle races (the 50, 100 and 200 meters) in addition to the butterfly, while Ledecky is only competing in three freestyle events.
The two will square off in the 200-meter freestyle, where Sjostrom holds the top time this year ahead of Ledecky by 0.09 seconds. The Swede also has the third-best time in 2016 in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyles.
Women's 100-Meter Freestyle
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Event final time: Aug. 11, 10:18 p.m.
Cate Campbell broke the 100-meter freestyle world record with a time of 52.06 at the Swimming Australia Grand Prix in Brisbane last month, just barely touching the wall ahead of the old mark of 52.07 that Germany's Britta Steffen set in 2009.
Skim through the swimming world records, and you'll notice that many occurred that year. According to a report by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (h/t Becca Borawski Jenkins of Breaking Muscle), that's because swimmers were wearing high-tech swimsuits that FINA banned starting in 2010. So the 24-year-old Australian's achievement is even more impressive considering she did it without the aide of a super suit.
Campbell does have the luxury, unlike some others chasing their own world records, of having a competitor who will push her in the 100 meters. That swimmer happens to be her sister, Bronte Campbell, who won the world championship last year and has the second-best time (52.58) recorded this year.
Sjostrom, who won silver at last year's world championships ahead of Cate, will also be pushing the Campbell sisters.
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Women's 400- and 800-Meter Freestyles
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Event final times: Aug. 7, 10:01 p.m. (400 final); Aug. 12, 9:20 p.m. (800 final)
If anyone deserves to use the line "I'm competing against myself," it's Katie Ledecky.
The American swimmer holds both the 400- and 800-meter freestyle world records, and she's in a league of her own in both races. Fellow American Leah Smith is her closest competitor in the 400, and Ledecky beat Smith by nearly two seconds at trials. Ledecky's time of 3:58.98 was within range of her world record (3:58.37), which she set in a meet in Australia in 2014.
In the 800, it's not even close. Ledecky won the race at the 2012 Games as a 15-year-old and seems to keep adding distance between herself and the field. She set her newest world record at an event in January in Austin, Texas, finishing in 8:06.68.
Ledecky was slower at trials (8:10.32) and wasn't pleased with her time.
"It just didn't feel like it was anything special," she said afterward to the press.
Her nothing special is almost eight seconds faster than Australian swimmer Jessica Ashwood, though, whose 8:18.14 is the fastest 800 anyone other than Ledecky has clocked this year.
The 19-year-old has competed in 15 international races in her career and won gold every single time. She's also the world-record holder in the women's 1,500-meter freestyle, which isn't an Olympic event. Expect her to rise to the occasion in Rio as she tries to outduel herself on the world's biggest stage.
Women's 800 Meters (track)
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Event final time: Aug. 20, 8:15 p.m.
South African Caster Semenya is expected to win the 800 meters and challenge the 33-year-old world record, and if she does, her achievement will likely be coated in controversy.
Semenya is not a cheater. Instead, she was born with naturally high levels of testosterone, and whether she should be allowed to compete with women has been debated for years. The International Association of Athletics Federations, track's governing body, revealed in 2009, when Semenya won the world championships in the 800 meters, that it required her to undergo sex tests.
Eventually, the IAAF ruled that Semenya had to take a hormone-suppressing drug in order to compete. In March 2015, a three-judge panel for the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled this practice was discriminatory, and Semenya was allowed to participate without using the drug. (The issue will be re-examined next July, and the IAAF will have to supply evidence that women with naturally higher levels of testosterone hold a competitive advantage).
As for the world record, she ran the fastest 800 meters since 2008 in July at the Diamond League meet in Monaco, clocking 1:55.33. The world record, held by Jarmila Kratochvilova, is 1:53.28. She is trending in that direction.
"I am dreamer," Semenya said recently, per Scott M. Reid of the Los Angeles Daily News. "What I dream of is to become Olympic champion, world champion, world-record holder."
Women's Hammer Throw
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Event final time: Aug. 12, 9:40 a.m.
Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk owns the seven best women's hammer throws of all time in the sport, and she's a threat to break her own record every time she competes.
Wlodarczyk first set the world record in 2014 at 79.58 meters, and she set a new record of 81.08 at the Festival of Throwers in Cetniewo, Poland, on Aug. 1, 2015. She went over 80 meters again later that month to win the world championship.
Her best mark this year, which took place in July, is the third-best throw of her life, measuring 80.26 meters.
Wlodarczyk will be trying to win her first Olympic gold in Rio. She won the silver medal in the hammer throw at the 2012 Olympics in London.
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