Six races and rivalries to watch in Paris Olympic pool

Swimming at the Paris Olympics promises to be one of the best and loudest spectacles of this summer’s Games.

It all begins on July 27, the day Adam Peaty begins his quest for a third consecutive Olympic gold.

Their battle is one of six races BBC Sport has selected to follow closely on a highly anticipated calendar in France…

Can Qin stop Peaty’s three-time championship?

The 100-meter breaststroke competition could be the ultimate showdown between a champion and a young contender.

Britain’s Adam Peaty is the greatest breaststroke swimmer in history, having achieved the 14 fastest times of all time and won gold at the last two Olympic Games.

Victory in Paris would complete the ‘Three Peat’ and mean the 29-year-old joins the great Michael Phelps as the only men to have won three consecutive golds in the same event at the Olympic Games.

But after eight years undefeated, Peaty has… Fought from TokyoIn his absence, a new star has emerged: China’s Qin Haiyang.

Qin won gold at the World Championships last year, doing so in a time of 57.69 seconds, making him the second fastest man in history behind Peaty. Peaty had not run such a fast time since the Tokyo Olympics.

Will he be able to rise to compete again or will a new champion be crowned?

When is the final? 20:54 BST, Sunday 28 July

Ledecky vs Titmus vs McIntosh: The three fastest of all time

The women’s 400m freestyle promises to be an epic event, with the three fastest swimmers of all time over the distance.

One of them is American great Katie Ledecky, who won the event in 2016 and needs two golds in Paris to become the most successful swimmer in history.

However, there will be tough competition from a familiar rival and a new one.

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus edged Ledecky to the gold medal in Tokyo and arrives after clocking the second-fastest time in history last month.

Then there’s 17-year-old Summer McIntosh, the Canadian who is set to be one of the Games’ rising stars.

She broke Titmus’ world record in March of last year, only for Titmus to go faster by beating Ledecky to silver at last year’s World Championships.

It could be anyone’s career.

When is the final? 19:55 BST, Saturday 27 July

A relay record for the British team?

The British team is heading into these Games with the intention of surpassing the eight swimming medals it won in Tokyo.

The race they should be most confident in is the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, an event Great Britain won in 2021.

The British team will be able to call on 2023 world 200m freestyle champion Matt Richards, Olympic silver medallist Duncan Scott and Olympic champion Tom Dean, who was beaten by his two teammates for a place in the individual event this time around.

James Guy will likely take the final spot to reunite the gold medal-winning quartet.

That day they were just 0.03 seconds shy of the world record set by the United States in 2009. Could they go any faster?

When is the final? 20:59 BST, Tuesday 30 July

Can Scott stop the “new monster” Marchand?

Any race in which Leon Marchand participates at the Olympic Games should not be missed.

The French superstar will be one of the faces of the Games in his country and has been breaking the record books in recent years.

He has been given the nickname “the new monster” – Phelps’ successor – and last year, after being taken in by Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman, he broke the American legend’s last world record in the 400m individual medley.

Marchand will race in that event, plus three others, and is likely to be a contender in each.

In the 200m individual medley he will face Britons Scott and Dean, who won silver and bronze at last year’s World Championships behind Marchand.

Can anyone stop him?

When is the final? 19:49 BST, Friday 2 August

A world-class women’s duel

The women’s 200-metre medley event will also be of interest.

Canada’s McIntosh, Australia’s three-time Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown and Americans Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh were supposed to meet in a final billed as historic at the 2023 World Championships, but McIntosh withdrew to focus on other events and McKeown was disqualified in the semi-final.

Barring any further twists and turns, the swimming world will get what it wanted a year later in Paris.

Half a second separates their respective best times from recent years.

Add to that the rivalry between the Australian and American teams (last year, Australian swimmer Cate Campbell added to the noise by calling the Americans “sore losers”), and this event is well worth following.

When is the final? 19:59 BST, Saturday 3 August

Will Will Proud win a medal in the splash and dash?

One of the races at the Games is always the 50-meter freestyle, also known as splash and dash.

The one-length sprint will crown the fastest swimmers on the planet and Team GB have a real contender.

Ben Proud has won World, European and Commonwealth gold throughout his career, but has never won an Olympic medal.

Will this be your year?

The men’s race will also have added intrigue with the return of American superstar Caeleb Dressel.

The 27-year-old has seven Olympic golds, including five last time out in Tokyo, but withdrew from the 2022 World Championships midway through the event and subsequently took a break for his mental health.

Returning to the world stage at the US trials last month, Dressel impressed by booking his place to defend his 50m freestyle title.

The final may be a lottery, however…

When is the final? 19:30 BST, Friday 2 August