Summer Olympics 2016: Predictions for Day 13 Medal Events

If you’re at the beach in Rio de Janeiro, this will be your last day to see two sports: sailing (wind permitting) and beach volleyball.

We’ll also get our first look at the triathlon course and some powerful Americans in women’s wrestling.

But in the evening, all eyes will be on the track once again. Yes, it’s Usain Bolt time.

Canoe Sprint

DAMIEN MEYER/Getty Images

This time, Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos doesn't even have to deal with Sebastian Brendel.

Men's K-2 1,000 Meters

8:08 a.m.

World champions Marcus Gross and Max Rendschmidt (Germany) dominated their heat to advance to the final. Serbia’s Marko Tomicevic and Milenko Zoric, third in last year’s World Championships, controlled the other.

With those two boats advanced to the final, Australia’s Ken Wallace and Lachlan Tame had the fastest time in the semifinals. Guess who took second place in last year’s World Championships?

Gold: Gross/Rendschmidt, Germany

Silver: Tomicevic/Zoric, Serbia

Bronze: Wallace/Tame, Australia

Men's C-1 200 Meters

8:23 a.m.

Defending champion Iurii Cheban (Ukraine) made the final but not as impressively as new Brazilian folk hero Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos, who already has a silver medal from these Games and was the only paddler to break 40 seconds in the semifinals.

Georgia’s Zaza Nadiradze and Russia’s Andrey Kraitor won the other semifinals. Spain’s Alfonso Benavides Lopez de Ayala has a series of third and fourth places in major events over the last four years.

Gold: Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos, Brazil

Silver: Iurii Cheban, Ukraine

Bronze: Zaza Nadiradze, Georgia

Men's K-2 200 Meters

8:47 a.m.

Great Britain’s Liam Heath and Jon Schofield took bronze in this event in 2012, and they’re poised to do it again. Spain’s Saul Craviotto and Cristian Toro were fastest in the heats, while Lithuania’s Aurimas Lankas and Edvinas Ramanauskas won to earn the other pass straight to the final. Heath and Schofield were fastest of the remaining duos in the semifinals.

The world champions, Hungary’s Sandor Totka and Peter Molnar, won the other semifinal.

Gold: Craviotto/Toro, Spain

Silver: Totka/Molnar, Hungary

Bronze: Heath/Schofield, Great Britain

Women's K-1 500 Meters

9:11 a.m.

Hungary’s Danuta Kozak won this event in 2012, followed up with world titles in 2013 and 2014. She was the fastest in the semifinals here. Easy pick for gold, right?

Wrong. New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington is the reigning world champion, and she took gold in the women’s 200 meters earlier this week. Then there’s Inna Osipenko-Rodomska, who won 2008 gold and 2012 silver for Ukraine before winning silver in the Rio 200 meters for Azerbaijan.

And somehow, Maryna Litvinchuk of Belarus was faster than Carrington in the semis.

Gold: Lisa Carrington, New Zealand

Silver: Danuta Kozak, Hungary

Bronze: Maryna Litvinchuk, Belarus

Triathlon

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Brownlee, Brownlee and ...

Men's Race

10 a.m.

Britain’s Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, took gold and bronze in London four years ago. They’ve continued to win in the World Triathlon Series, only occasionally interrupted by Spanish rivals such as Mario Mola.

We’ll have to see whether the cycling portion of this race is as dangerous as it was for the road cyclists in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games’ opening weekend.

Gold: Alistair Brownlee, Great Britain

Silver: Mario Mola, Spain

Bronze: Jonathan Brownlee, Great Britain

Track and Field, Morning Session

Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Because when you think "hurdles favorite," you think "an Irish guy who didn't break 49 seconds until 2014."

Men's 400-Meter Hurdles

11 a.m.

The last four Olympic golds alternated between the USA’s Angelo Taylor and the Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez. They’re both out of the picture, possibly opening the door for past medalists Kerron Clement (USA, 2008 silver) and Javier Culson (Puerto Rico, 2012 bronze).

But since the retirement of the great Edwin Moses, this has not been a predictable event.

Sanchez often won what he was supposed to lose and vice versa. Johnny Dutch has the fastest time in the world this year, but he failed to make the U.S. team in the hypercompetitive trials. World champion Nicholas Bett (Kenya) tripped in the heats and was disqualified. South African favorite L.J. van Zyl finished fifth in his semifinal. And no one expected Ireland’s Thomas Barr to be the talk of the early rounds.

Clement (48.26), Jamaica’s Annsert Whyte (48.32) and Barr (48.39) posted the fastest non-Johnny Dutch times of the year in the semifinals. Clement’s career best is nearly a second faster, and Culson also has run sub-48 in the past.

All of which probably means someone we don't know is going to win it. Maybe Barr.

Gold: Kerron Clement, United States

Silver: Javier Culson, Puerto Rico

Bronze: Annsert Whyte, Jamaica

Badminton

ED JONES/Getty Images

Denmark has the court covered.

Women’s Doubles

Bronze-medal match, 7:30 a.m.
Gold-medal match, 10:50 a.m.

Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, quarterfinalists in 2012, only made it to the quarterfinals this time around as the second team in three-way tiebreaker in group play. They were 2-1, as were South Korea’s Jung Kyung Eun/Shin Seung Chan and China’s Luo Ying/Luo Yu. The tiebreaker knocked out one Chinese team, and the Danes did it again in the semifinal, winning a dramatic three-setter over Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang.

(So if it’s any consolation to the USA’s Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana, two of the three teams that beat them in group play advanced to the semifinals. Jung/Shin will play Tang/Yu for bronze.)

Whoever wins, it’ll be the first gold in this event for their home country. China has won this event five of the six times it’s been contested. South Korea won the other. Again, Lee and Obanana were in the Group of Death by any measure.

It’s not as if the Danes came from nowhere. They were runners-up in last year’s World Championships. The Japanese finalists, Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo, have a few international wins but not much from World Championship play.

Gold: Pedersen/Juhl, Denmark

Silver: Takahashi/Matsutomo, Japan

Bronze: Tang/Yu, China

Sailing

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

New Zealand rules the waves, at least in the 49er class.

Two medal races were postponed from Wednesday, and we're assuming no one forgot to sail on the day off, so we’ll reiterate the B/R predictions here.

Women's 470 (dinghy)

12:05 p.m.

Great Britain's Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark will win gold with an insurmountable 20-point lead. New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, the defending gold medalists, have a slim lead for silver over boats from the USA, France and Japan.

Gold: Mills/Clark, Great Britain

Silver: Aleh/Powrie, New Zealand

Bronze: Annie Haeger/Briana Provancha, United States

Men's 470 (dinghy)

12:50 p.m.

Croatia's Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic will win a medal, probably gold. Greece's Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis need to hold off Australia's Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan for silver. The USA's Stuart McNay and David Hughes are in fourth place, but they're mathematically out of the running.

Gold: Fantela/Marenic, Croatia

Silver: Mantis/Kagialis, Greece

Bronze: Belcher/Ryan, Australia

And then we'll pick up with the predictions for the races that had already been scheduled for this final day (weather permitting) of sailing:

Men’s 49er (skiff)

1:35 p.m.

The race for gold is over: New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who took silver in 2012 and four world championships since then, have an unassailable lead. The race for silver is much closer. Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel have a slight edge over the defending Olympic champions, Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen. If one of those boats should falter, Great Britain’s Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Alain Sign will have a shot.

(No, we don’t know why sailors in this class have an extra “i” in their first names.)

Gold: Burling/Tuke, New Zealand

Silver: Outteridge/Jensen, Australia

Bronze: Heil/Ploessel, Germany 

Women’s 49erFX (skiff)

2:20 p.m.

The final race in Rio and the first-ever Olympic final in this class will be a scorcher. We have a three-way tie between Spain (Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez and Berta Betanzos Moro), Brazil (Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze) and Denmark (Jena Hansen and Katja Steen Salskov-Iversen). Then it’s just one point back to New Zealand’s Alex Maloney and Molly Meech.

Basically, take the order in which those four boats finish, and you’ll have your medalists. No math needed.

Three of those four boats won world championships in the past four years. Only the Danes are a surprise. Brazil has two runner-up finishes as well. Spain won it this year.

Gold: Echegoyen/Betanzos, Spain

Silver: Grael/Kunze, Brazil

Bronze: Maloney/Meech, New Zealand

Boxing

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

France's Mathieu Bauderlique misses Cuba's Julio Cesar La Cruz in the semifinals.

Men’s Light Heavyweight

2:30 p.m.

Forty-six years ago, the winner of this weight class was a young American named Cassius Clay, who would move up to heavyweight as a pro and change his name to Muhammad Ali.

Today, 2012 silver medalist Adilbek Niyazymbetov of Kazakhstan faces Cuba’s Julio Cesar La Cruz, who has won the last three world titles.

France’s Mathieu Albert Daniel Bauderlique and Great Britain’s Joshua Buatsi will pick up their bronze medals after the final.

Gold: Julio Cesar La Cruz, Cuba

Silver: Adilbek Niyazymbetov, Kazakhstan

Bronze: Mathieu Bauderlique, France

Bronze: Joshua Buatsi, Great Britain

Diving

Elsa/Getty Images

Simone Biles can do this part. The next part might take some practice.

Women’s 10-Meter Platform

Semifinal, 9 a.m.
Final, 3 p.m.

Chinese divers haven’t been automatic in Rio, nor have they been automatic in this event. The world champion is North Korea’s Kim Kuk Hyang. China’s Si Yajie won the 2013 world title but finished fourth last year behind Kim, China’s Ren Qian and Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong Pamg, who also took bronze in 2012. Australia’s Melissa Wu also has been near the podium in the last Olympics and World Championships.

But Si and Ren, both teenagers, were far ahead of everyone else in the field in Wednesday’s preliminaries. Kim, on the other hand, failed to qualify for the semifinal.

The USA’s Jessica Parratto was third in the prelims, followed by Wu, Great Britain’s Tonia Couch and Pamg.

Gold: Ren Qian, China

Silver: Si Yajie, China

Bronze: Melissa Wu, Australia

Field Hockey

CARL DE SOUZA/Getty Images

Stopping Belgium is more difficult than it looks.

Men's Team

Bronze-medal game, 11 a.m.
Gold-medal game, 4 p.m.

What’s going on in Belgium? The small nation has been a soccer power over the last five years, and now they’re in the Olympic final in this sport as well. They’ll face Argentina, which took third behind Australia and the Netherlands in the 2014 World Championships.

In 2012, Germany beat the Netherlands for gold. This year, they’ll play for bronze.

Gold: Argentina

Silver: Belgium

Bronze: Germany

Wrestling

Women’s 53-Kilogram

Early rounds through semifinals, 9 a.m. ET
Repechage, 3 p.m.
Gold-medal bout, 4 p.m.

The USA’s Helen Louise Maroulis won the Golden Grand Prix last year, she won the world championship in a slightly higher weight class, and yet she’s not one of the 13 wrestlers to get a bye to the round of 16. Go figure.

The last two World Championships have had the same medalists, in order: Japan’s Saori Yoshida, Sweden’s Sofia Magdalena Mattsson and North Korea’s Jong Myong Suk. Nigeria’s Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye also took a bronze medal last year and also shared third in the Golden Grand Prix behind Maroulis and Mattsson.

Curiously, Mattsson and Adekuoroye must face off in the round of 16. If Maroulis wins her “play-in” bout, she’ll likely face tough Chinese wrestler Zhong Xuechen, then Jong, then the Mattsson-Adekuoroye winner. In the other half of the draw, Yoshida has a paved highway to the final.

(Yes, we’re talking a wrestler named MATtsson. That surely never gets old for her.)

Gold: Saori Yoshida, Japan

Silver: Helen Maroulis, United States

Bronze: Sofia Mattsson, Sweden

Bronze: Jong Myong Suk, North Korea

Women’s 63-Kilogram

Early rounds through semifinals, 9 a.m. ET
Repechage, 3 p.m.
Gold-medal bout, 4:50 p.m.

The USA’s Elena Sergey Pirozhkova, who won a world championship in 2012 before wrestling scrambled the weight classes for its Olympic makeover, has a bye. The bad news: She then faces Golden Grand Prix runner-up Taybe Mustafa Yusein (Bulgaria), with world champion Battsetseg Soronzonbold (Mongolia) likely the next one up.

Ukraine’s Yuliia Ostapchuk Tkach, the 2014 world champion and 2015 bronze medalist, has to battle through the early round. She’s in the same half of the draw as 2015 runner-up Risako Kawai (Japan).

Gold: Battsetseg Soronzonbold, Mongolia

Silver: Yuliia Tkach, Ukraine

Bronze: Elena Pirozhkova, United States

Bronze: Risako Kawai, Japan

Women’s 75-Kilogram

Early rounds through semifinals, 9 a.m. ET
Repechage, 3 p.m.
Gold-medal bout, 5:35 p.m.

The USA’s Adeline Maria Gray has won the last two world titles. Naturally, her half of the draw has two other medalists from 2015, plus China’s Zhang Fengliu, who must face 2015 bronze medalist and Golden Grand Prix winner Epp Mae (Estonia) in the round of 16. Gray will likely face the other 2015 bronze medalist, Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus, in the quarterfinals.

The bottom half of the draw throws Brazilian Aline da Silva Ferreira, the 2014 runner-up, against Japan’s Rio Watari in the round of 16.

Gold: Adeline Gray, United States

Silver: Aline da Silva Ferreira, Brazil

Bronze: Zhang Fengliu, China

Bronze: Rio Watari, Japan

Track and Field, Evening Session

JOHN MACDOUGALL/Getty Images

Deja vu. Many times.

Men’s Shot Put

Qualification, 8:55 a.m.
Final, 7:30 p.m.

This could be an epic throwdown between world champion Joe Kovacs (USA), Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski (Poland) and 2013 world champion David Storl (Germany). Storl also was runner-up in the last Olympics and World Championships.

But Majewski hasn’t been in top form this year. Storl has been so-so. Kovacs has the world’s top throw this year, closely followed by teammate Ryan Crouser. Nigeria’s Stephen Mozia and third American Darrell Hill are next.

Never pick a U.S. sweep, though. In so many years past, it's looked likely but hasn't happened.

Gold: Joe Kovacs, United States

Silver: Ryan Crouser, United States

Bronze: David Storl, Germany

Women’s Javelin

8:10 p.m.

The Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova has the last two Olympic golds, and she set the world record of 72.28 meters after the 2008 Games. She’s 35 now, but she still has the second-best throw of the year (66.87 meters). The best belongs to a thrower 15 years younger, Poland’s Maria Andrejczyk (67.11 meters).

Germany’s Christina Obergfoll also is 35, and she’s the only finalist other than Spotakova who has ever thrown past 70 meters. But she did it nearly a decade ago.

Two other finalists, Germany’s Christin Hussong and Belarus’ Tatsiana Khaladovich, have thrown past 66 meters this year. Linda Stahl gives Germany a third medal hopeful as well.

Gold: Barbora Spotakova, Czech Republic

Silver: Maria Andrejczyk, Poland

Bronze: Christin Hussong, Germany

Men's Decathlon

Ends with 1,500-meter run at 8:45 p.m.

Through five events yesterday, Ashton Eaton was cruising. They'll continue all day today, with the 110-meter hurdles in the morning, then into the field for the discus, pole vault and javelin, then back to the track for their exhausting final event, the 1,500 meters.

Germany's Kai Kazmirek has been at or near his personal best in each event so far. Can he keep it up today and stay ahead of Canadian Damian Warner, who has been on the podium in the last two World Championships?

Gold: Ashton Eaton, United States

Silver: Damian Warner, Canada

Bronze: Kai Kazmirek, Germany

Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles

9:15 p.m.

While you were all watching another interview with U.S. phenom Sydney McLaughlin, who will have better times in the future, fellow American Dalilah Muhammad was posting the fastest time of the semifinals (53.89). She also has the fastest time of the year (52.88).

The only runner in the final who has ever gone that fast is two-time defending world champion Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic, but she hasn’t been close to that time since 2013. Jamaica’s Janieve Russell is the only other runner in the final to break 54 seconds this year, at 53.96. But the USA’s Ashley Spencer (54.02) and Great Britain’s Eilidh Doyle (54.09) have been close.

Gold: Dalilah Muhammad, United States

Silver: Janieve Russell, Jamaica

Bronze: Ashley Spencer, United States

Men’s 200 Meters

9:30 p.m.

Never pick against Usain Bolt again. Never pick against Usain Bolt again.

Sure, the USA went to Rio with the three fastest sprinters of the year. LaShawn Merritt has been as fast as 19.74 seconds, Justin Gatlin ran a 19.75 in July, and Ameer Webb has a 19.85. Then it’s Antigua’s Miguel Francis at 19.88, and THEN Bolt at 19.89.

But then we get to Rio, and Bolt wins his semi while smiling back and forth with Canadian buddy Andre De Grasse. Merritt also sailed through the final. Gatlin and Webb? Nope.

Gold: Usain Bolt, Jamaica

Silver: LaShawn Merritt, United States

Bronze: Andre De Grasse, Canada

Taekwondo

Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Jade Jones shows off the quick feet needed to be a taekwondo champion.

Women’s 57-Kilogram

Round of 16, 8 a.m.
Quarterfinals, 2 p.m.
Semifinals, 4 p.m.
Repechages, 7 p.m.
Bronze-medal bouts, 8 p.m.
Gold-medal bout, 9 p.m.

British star Jade Jones took the gold in London in 2012. She has been consistent since then, taking a medal of each color in the last three Grand Prix finals.

Spain’s Eva Calvo Gomez, who also has a medal from each of the last three Grand Prix finals, would not face Jones until the final. But she could face Japanese contender Mayu Hamada in the quarterfinals and current Grand Prix champion Hedaya Wahba (Egypt) in the semis.

Taekwondo has an unusual Olympic qualification system in which most countries are limited to four athletes over the eight weight classes (four men, four women). The USA did not enter this class.

Gold: Jade Jones, Great Britain

Silver: Eva Calvo Gomez, Spain

Bronze: Mayu Hamada, Japan

Bronze: Hedaya Wahba, Egypt

Men’s 68-Kilogram

Round of 16, 8:15 a.m.
Quarterfinals, 2:15 p.m.
Semifinals, 4:15 p.m.
Repechages, 7:15 p.m.
Bronze-medal bouts, 8:15 p.m.
Gold-medal bout, 9:15 p.m.

Defending champion Servet Tazegul (Turkey) has a tough draw, likely facing 2013 and 2014 Grand Prix champion Alexey Denisenko (Russia) in the quarterfinals.

South Korea’s Lee Daehoon, the 2015 Grand Prix champion, has an easier road in the lower half of the draw, with 2015 runner-up Saul Gutierrez Macedo (Mexico) looming in the semis. Belgium’s Jaouad Achab took third in 2015 and has a clear path to face the winner of the Tazegul-Denisenko bracket in the semis.

The USA didn’t enter this weight class, either.

Gold: Lee Daehoon, South Korea

Silver: Alexey Denisenko, Russia

Bronze: Servet Tazegul, Turkey

Bronze: Saul Gutierrez Macedo, Mexico

Beach Volleyball

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Not the Alison from Elvis Costello.

Men's Team

Bronze-medal match, 9 p.m.
Gold-medal match, 11 p.m.

Alison and Bruno won the 2015 beach volleyball world title without a beach full of loud Brazilians backing them up. This one, against Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo, looks easier by comparison.

The Dutch duo of Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen won the 2013 world title. They’ll face a pair of Russians for bronze.

Gold: Alison/Bruno, Brazil

Silver: Nicolai/Lupo, Italy

Bronze: Brouwer/Meeuwsen, Netherlands