Adlington one of three swimmers tipped for gold at Olympics
Published:Swimming is one of the first sports to feature at the Olympic Games and offers Team GB an early opportunity to get some medals on the board, although it is the US and Australia likely to dominate the podium.
However, Rebecca Adlington will want to build on her two golds in Beijing and she is one of three competitors to feature in our best bets of the Olympics in the swimming events.
Rebecca Adlington to win the women’s 800m freestyle @ 8/15
Adlington has arguably not gone on as expected after her two golds in Beijing in 2008, but she has a big chance of defending her 400m and 800m freestyle titles in London.
The safer option from a betting perspective is the longer event, where she is ranked at number one after her victory in the event at the World Aquatics Championships last year.
She breezed past Lotte Friis in the latter stages on that occasion and the Denmark swimmer may be found wanting again, with arguably stamina her greatest attribute and not closing speed.
Yang Sun to win men’s 400m Freestyle @ 8/13
Sun’s number one event is clearly the 1500m freestyle, but at 1/10 in the swimming odds, it is virtually impossible to back him for victory here.
Competition will be stronger in the 400m event, where Peter Vanderkaay looks decent each-way value at 25/1, but the young Chinese swimmer can secure the double.
He is the fastest over the distance this year and there are grounds to believe that he will only get quicker as he gets older.
Matthew Grevers to win men’s 100m backstroke @ 6/4
Grevers was mightily impressive at the US Trials and anything close to a repeat will virtually assure him of the gold.
His time of 52.08secs was the fastest in the world this year by a massive 0.7secs over a relatively short distance and will be tough for anyone to match.
France’s Camille Lacourt threatens to be a big danger, alongside Ryosuke Irie, but this performance at the trials should arguably have made Grevers a stand-alone favourite and even possibly odds-on for gold.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
