Olympic swimming FAQ: Key dates, American swimmers to watch

The open-water swimming events, a separate competition altogether, will be held in the Seine River. Once considered too polluted for any human to safely enter, the Seine is apparently sterile enough for swimming after a complicated clean-up effort. Paris' mayor took a dip July 17 to prove it.

How will the swimming events be scored?

Olympic swimming is not scored like a typical swim meet. There is no winning team with the most points at the end of the week.

Instead, the meet is run like the track events. Individual finishes are recorded, and the top-three fastest competitors earn medals.

Who are the top American swimmers?

Team USA, highlighted by Katie Ledecky, will be heavily favored to take home the most swimming medals.

Ledecky will look to add to her already-cemented GOAT status when she competes in her four signature freestyle events.

Caeleb Dressel, after a nine-month break from the sport, is returning to defend his 2021 medals in two events. He'll also try to help Team USA fend off surging rivals Australia and France in the freestyle relay. If Dressel wins gold in all three events, he would be second all time in American Olympic history with 10 total, trailing only the legendary Michael Phelps.

Ryan Murphy, dubbed the "Backstroke King," will attempt to win medals in both backstroke events for a third consecutive Olympics.

Americans Kate Douglass and Regan Smith both medaled in 2021 and hope to win their first gold medals in Paris.

Who are the non-American swimmers to watch?

French phenom Leon Marchand, an NCAA champion with Arizona State, looks to shock the world by snagging medals in four events. Marchand trained under Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, at Arizona State.

Ledecky will have stiff opposition in Australia's Ariarne Titmus, who dethroned her in one event at the 2021 Tokyo Games and broke two of her world records earlier in 2024.

The Chinese swim team will be under intense scrutiny now that its doping controversy from Tokyo in 2021 has carried over to the Paris Games. Eleven swimmers from the 2021 team are expected to contend for medals this summer.

What should I know about records?

When watching Olympic swimming coverage, one might see the winning swimmer finish a race ahead of a digital gold line on the water and the letters "WR" pop up next to their name. That means the swimmer broke the world record and recorded the fastest time in that event.

If the letters "OR" appear next to the winning swimmer's name, that means they broke the Olympic record.

Breaking a national record is specific to the winning swimmer's country. For instance, TV coverage in the U.S. will only show the letters "AR" for when an American swimmer wins the race and breaks the American record.