2012 Olympics Swimming: Matt Grevers, Missy Franklin Win Gold For Team USA

Heading into the 2012 London Olympics, much of the focus on the United States swimming team was on the head-to-head battle between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. On Monday, however, it was the other members of the US team stealing the show.

The United States added four more medals to their growing medal count Monday, including two gold medals. Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old from Colorado, captured the first gold medal of her career, winning the women’s 100-meter backstroke.

Michael Phelps hasn’t gotten off to a terrific start at the London 2012 Olympics, but he comfortably qualified for the finals of what is arguably his strongest event on Monday. He coasted into the final of the 200 meter butterfly, posting a time of 1:54.53. It was the fourth fastest time in qualifying and put him less than three tenths of a second behind Takeshi Matsuda, who posted a semifinal-best 1:54.25.

Phelps is joined in Tuesday’s final by fellow American Tyler Clary, who posted the fifth fastest time. The 200 meter butterfly was the first world record ever claimed by Phelps, back in 2004. He’s the current holder of the world record in the event and has set the 200 meter butterfly world record a total of eight times. Tuesday’s final is scheduled for 7:49 p.m. local time, 2:49 p.m. ET.

At the turn, Matt Grevers of Team USA was out of the lead in the men’s 100m backstroke final of the 2012 Olympics. Then Grevers left the field in his wake on the way to the U.S.‘s second gold medal of Tuesday in the pool and a new Olympic record.

Grevers exploded off the wall and finished with a time of 1:52.16, the new Olympic standard in the event. American Nick Thoman (1:52.92) won a tight race for second, out-touching Japan’s Ryosuke Irie (1:52.97) for silver, and giving the U.S. its first 1-2 finish of the London Olympics.

Missy Franklin is likely to get a couple of medals for Team USA at the 2012 London Olympics. She got into the women’s 200m freestyle final on Monday by the skin of her teeth.

Franklin finished eighth of 16 semifinalists in the two heats of the day at 1:57.57, just .19 seconds ahead of Melani Costa-Schmid of Spain, and getting the U.S. two finalists in the event by a razor-thin margin. Allison Schmitt of Team USA took second in the first qualifying heat and second overall, turning in a time of 1:56.15.

Ryan Lochte didn’t pull through at the end of the men’s 4x100 relay on Sunday at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself on Day Three, with an event he’s favored to medal in leading off swimming’s afternoon session in the Aquatics Center at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The men’s 200m freestyle, which is the first of four finals, will not be shown on American TV until NBC’s primetime coverage, which begins Monday night at 8 p.m. ET., but a live Olympics swimming stream is available via NBC Live Extra. Here’s the schedule for the four medal finals in the pool on Monday.

Fresh off his first career silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay, Michael Phelps returned to the pool Monday morning for the first round of qualifying for the 200m butterfly, and he made it through to the semifinals in comfortable fashion.

When he was in the pool, he probably didn’t feel too great when touching the wall third in a qualifying heat — one of five before the two-heat semis — but Heat 5 was just the place to be. Austrian Dinko Jukic had the fastest qualifying time, and he was in Phelps’ pool, touching in 1:54.79. Fellow American Tyler Clary finished in second in the heat and in qualifying with 1:54.96. Phelps finished in fifth in qualifying, comfortably finding a place among the 16 semis qualifiers, in 1:55.53.