Rio 2016 #Olympics What to Watch For — Wednesday August 10

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.

Wednesday August 10th

★★ Women’s cycling road time trial — 6:30–8am (Central) NBCSN, 2:45pm NBC

Here’s a rare treat for the early birds if you want to watch live, or check back in the afternoon for a summary. Americans Kristin Armstrong and Evelyn Stevens are both expected to be in contention for a medal.

★★★★ Tennis singles — USA Madison Keys vs Russia, USA Steve Johnson vs Russia — 8:45am 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.

★★★ Men’s beach volleyball — USA Gibb/Patterson vs Spain — 9am NBC

Gibb and Patterson stumbled in their second match against Austria, falling to 1–1. Now they face the Spanish group favorites. A win may help them win the group, while a loss leaves them in a very tenuous spot near elimination.

★★★ Men’s rugby — USA vs Fiji — 11am USA

Rugby sevens has been a ton of fun to watch for the first time at these Olympics — but this may likely be your last chance to do so with a patriotic rooting interest. USA went 1–1 on Tuesday with a win against Brazil and a heartbreaking last-second loss to Argentina. They likely need to beat Fiji to make the knockout tournament, and Fiji has dominated so far.

★★★★ 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 — Serbia vs France — 12pm USA

A fun midday treat between two cagey veteran teams that have disappointed a bit so far. Serbia features star point guard Milos Teodosic, one of the best players not in the NBA (by his own choice). He’ll match up with France’s Tony Parker in one of the best head-to-head battles in this tournament.

★★★ Women’s volleyball — USA vs Serbia — 1pm NBCSN

USA is off to a good start with a pair of wins, but Serbia is undefeated as well and was the World Cup runner-up in 2015. The winner here has a great chance to finish top two in group play and get a protected draw in eventual knockout play. USA also has a 13-match Olympic win streak on the line.

★★ Men’s soccer — Mexico vs South Korea — 2pm MSNBC

Mexico and South Korea face off in what could likely be an elimination match in soccer. Mexico are the defending gold medal champs.

★ Men’s shooting double trap — 2:30pm USA

A rare shooting look-in finds American Josh Richmond among the contenders for gold. Richmond is an Army sergeant, so now you know where he gets his training.

★★ Men’s rugby — quarterfinal — 3pm USA, 4pm CNBC

Rugby has been an awesome watch. These are the quarterfinals, which may or may not feature Team USA depending on the Fiji game earlier in the day. Games are just 15 minutes and move quickly, and even if the US don’t make it, you’ll be entertained.

★ Women’s rowing — 3:15pm NBC

Check in on rowing, which is more entertaining than you think — and USA is traditionally pretty good too. Team USA should be in medal contention in a couple of events here, both the quadruple sculls as well as Felice Mueller and Eleanor Logan in women’s pair rowing.

★★★ Men’s basketball — USA vs Australia — 5pm NBCSN

First real test for this version of the Dream Team, full of confidence after 2 easy wins. Australia has impressed with 2 wins against contenders France and Serbia, and they bring surprisingly dominant big man Andrew Bogut and Spurs guard Patty Mills along with a very efficient offensive system. Don’t be surprised to see them give Team USA trouble — for at least a half. And if that’s not enough, maybe I can interest you in a Kyrie v Dellavadova showdown?

★★★★ Olympic prime time on NBC — 7–11pm NBC

Wednesday is a good chance for a night out if you need a break after Tuesday’s big night, though there’s plenty to see here too. You’ll start with beach volleyball before a whole bunch of swimming events and then wrap up with the men’s all-around gymnastics late.

★ Women’s beach volleyball — USA Walsh Jennings/Ross vs Switzerland — 7pm NBC

Walsh Jennings and Ross look to finish group play undefeated and win their group against a Swiss team I feel decidedly neutral about.

★★★ Men’s soccer — Brazil vs Denmark — 8pm NBCSN

Flip over to this game during prime time commercials. Soccer is Brazil’s marquee sport, but they have still never won an Olympic gold medal. They are the gold medal favorites and feature superstar Neymar — but haven’t even scored yet in two ugly goalless draws. Now they face group leader Denmark, and a loss or even a draw could leave them shockingly eliminated.

★★★ Men’s swimming 200m breaststroke — 8pm NBC

This is American Josh Prenot’s only event, but it’s a good one. He’s the best in the world and the favorite for gold but it should be a tight race. USA’s Kevin Cordes could also be in contention for a medal.

★ Women’s swimming 200m butterfly — 8:50pm NBC

Don’t count on a gold medal here from the US with Germany, Japan, and Australia likely duking it out, but American Cammile Adams could surprise and contend for a medal.

★★★ Men’s swimming 100m freestyle — 9:00pm NBC

Nathan Adrian swam the final lap of Team USA’s 4x100m golden relay Sunday night, and he’ll have a chance at individual gold here. He’ll need to get past the favorite, Australia’s Cameron McEvoy.

★★ Men’s swimming 200m IM semifinals — 9:25pm NBC

This is a semifinal with the final Thursday night, but you’ll want to tune in to see Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte push to secure their spots in the final. They’re the two favorites in the event and could go gold-silver tomorrow.

★★★★ Women’s swimming 4x200m freestyle relay, 9:50pm NBC

USA is the gold favorite and were the winners last time around as well. They should face similar competition from Australia and France. If Missy Franklin and the team can keep it close heading to the anchor leg, Katie Ledecky should help secure yet another gold as she finishes it out.

★★ Men’s gymnastics individual all-around — 10pm NBC

You’ll likely see some incredible gymnastics here — just probably not a ton of it from Americans Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks who are decidedly long shots to medal. The heavy favorite is Japan’s Kohei Uchimora who has won every Olympic and world all-around title since 2009, like Simone Biles but on steroids (but not actually, cuz he’s not Russian).

★ Women’s table tennis singles final — 10pm NBCSN

It’s the gold medal final which could likely feature a pair of Chinese women — China has won 21 of 24 table tennis golds including all 7 women’s singles. Watch in awe as you slowly realize that you not only wouldn’t score a point against these women, you might not even return the server.

★ Men’s diving synchronized springboard — 11:30pm NBC

Synchronized diving is always mesmerizing, and NBC’s late night coverage offers a chance to take a look at yet another sport the Chinese traditionally dominate. Americans Michael Hixon and Sam Dorman hope to contend.

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.